Lowland Paca

Lowland Paca

The paca, also known as the Agouti paca or the lowland paca, is a large nocturnal rodent that lives in the tropical rain forest. Having a stout body covered with dark hair and four rows of white spots on each side of its body, this animal can weigh as much as 40 pounds and grow to a length of 32.5 inches. The paca also has large cheeks that help the animal make noises.

Pacas are frequently preyed on by other Amazon animals such jaguars. To avoid predators the paca uses its excellent swimming ability to flee danger. By foraging for food at night the paca attempts to make itself difficult for predators to stalk.

The pace lives in forested habitats near water, preferably smaller rivers, and digs simple burrows about six and a half feet below the surface, usually with more than one exit.

The paca is an incredible climber and searches for fruit in the trees. Its diet includes leaves, stems, roots, seeds, and fruit, especially avocados, mangos and zapotes.
This solitary-living rodents only gets with others of its kind during the mating season.

The Lowland Paca is considered an agricultural pest by farmers because it enjoys eating yams, cassava, sugar cane, corn and other food crops.

Because its meat has excellent flavor (I find it similar to fresh pork), the paca is hunted and its meat is sold at high prices.

Plentiful in protected habitats, hence not in danger of extinction, the overall paca population has decreased due to hunting and habitat destruction.

The paca is easily bred and raised on farms, although the taste of farm raised paca is thought to be highly inferior to flesh of a wild paca.

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Ocelot

Ocelot

The Ocelot, known also as the Painted Leopard, McKenney's Wildcat, Jaguatirica in Brazil or Manigordo in Costa Rica, is a wild cat distributed over South America, Central America and Mexico. There are reports of sightings of Ocelots as far north as Texas and in Trinidad in the Caribbean. Of the ten Ocelot subspecies, one is found in the Brazilian rain forest.

The Ocelot's appearance is similar to that of the domestic cat. The Ocelot's fur resembles that of a Clouded Leopard or Jaguar. Once the pelt of the Ocelot was regarded as highly valuable. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of Ocelots being killed for their fur. This feline was classified a "vulnerable" endangered species from the 1980s until 1996, but is now generally considered "least concern" by the 2006 IUCN Red List.

The Ocelot has an average length of 3 feet, with a tail that is a 1 1/2 feet in length. An average weight for the Ocelot is between 25–35 pounds. This makes the Ocelot the largest of the generally dainty Leopardus wild cat genus.

While similar in appearance to the Oncilla and the Margay, which inhabit the same region, the Ocelot is larger.

The Ocelot has a tawny to reddish brown coat marked with black spots and rosettes. The fur is short, and lighter beneath. There is a single white spot on the back of each of its ears, and there are two black lines on either side of its face. It has a black-banded tail.

Mostly nocturnal and very territorial, the Ocelot will fight fiercely, sometimes to the death, in territorial disputes.

The Ocelot, like most felines, is solitary, usually meeting only to mate. However, during the day when resting in trees or other dense foliage, the Ocelot occasionally shares its spot with another Ocelot of the same sex.

The Ocelot, is well equipped for a lifestyle of life in the jungle and will sometimes take to the trees, but unlike the Margay and Oncilla, the Ocelot mainly stays on the ground.

Most Ocelots hunt over a range of 7 square miles, taking mostly small South American deer (which are far small than their North American cousins), rabbits and various rodents, reptiles and amphibians, such as lizards, frogs, and turtles, crabs, birds and fish.

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Oncilla

Oncilla

The Oncilla also known as the Little Spotted Cat, Tigrillo, Cunaguaro or Tiger Cat, is a close relative of the Ocelot and the Margay. The oncilla’s habitat is the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. Two of the four subspecies live in Brazil.

The Oncilla is a nocturnal animal, which hunts for rodents and birds. Because the Oncilla hunts in the canopy above the range of the margay and ocelot, the three species of cat can reside in the same area without competing for each others food.

The Oncilla grows between 18 to 24 inches long, with a tail anywhere from 10 to 20 inches long. While the Oncilla is somewhat larger than the average Domestic Cat, it is slightly lighter, weighing between 5 and 10 pounds.

Their coat is light brown to rich ochre or grey, with very dark brown or black spots and blotches. The under parts of the Oncilla are lighter with solitary black spots. Their limbs are spotted on the outside, and the long tail has spots at the root, developing into black rings. The Oncilla is a daintily built cat, with a narrow head and a white line above the eyes. The large ears are rounded and black on the outside with a conspicuous white central spot.

The Oncilla is consider to be an endangered species.

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Jaguarundi

Jaguarundi

The jaguarundi is a medium-sized Mexican, Central and South American wild cat. Two of the eight subspecies are found in Brazil.

The jaguarundi has an average length 30 inches, a 20 inch tail and weighs about 13.2 pounds. Due to short legs and ears that are short and rounded the jaguarundi is sometimes said to have the appearance of an otter.

The coat of the jaguarundi is unspotted, uniform in color, and varying from blackish to brownish gray or from foxy red to chestnut.

The two color phases were once thought to represent two distinct species; the gray one called jaguarundi, and the red one called eyra. However, studies have proven these are the same species and both color phases may be found in the same litter. Its coat has no markings except for spots at birth.

The jaguarundi prefers a habitat of lowland brush areas close to a source of running water. As in the case of the Brazilian subspecies, the jaguarundi occasionally inhabits dense tropical areas as well. This cat is comfortable in trees, but prefers to hunt on the ground. It preys upon fish, small mammals, reptiles and birds.

This cat is not particularly sought after for its fur, but it is suffering decline due to loss of habitat

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Margay

Margay

The Margay is a spotted cat native to Central and South America. Two subspecies are found in the Amazonian rain forest.

The Margay is a solitary and nocturnal animal that prefers remote sections of the rainforest.

The Margay can weigh about 6.6–20 pounds, with a body length of 18 to 32 inches and a tail length of 13 to 20 inches.

Similar to the larger Ocelot, the head of the Margay is a bit shorter, the tail and legs are longer, and the spotted pattern on the tail is different. Most notably, the Margay is a much more skillful climber than its relative, and it is sometimes called the Tree Ocelot because of this skill.

The Margay may spend its entire life in the trees, leaping after and chasing birds and monkeys through the treetops. The Margay is one of only two cat species with the ankle flexibility necessary to climb head-first down trees (the other being the Clouded Leopard). Its ankles can turn up to 180 degrees, it can grasp branches equally well with its fore and hind paws, and it is able to jump considerable distances. The Margay has been observed to hang from branches with only one foot.

Once believed to be vulnerable to extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature now lists the Margay as "Near Threatened".

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Giant Anteater

Giant Anteater

The Giant Anteater is widespread, inhabiting Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Currently the Giant Anteater is listed as vulnerable but not endangered.

Giant Anteaters are preyed upon by cougars, jaguars and alligators. Humans also prey upon the Giant Anteater when hunting,

The Giant Anteater has a dense, thick, bristled coat of fur which is longer towards their rump. Brown in color, Giant Anteaters have black and white stripes on their back or shoulder areas.
They have 5 short claws on their hind feet, while on their forefeet they also have 2 short claws and 3 claws that are long and sharp.

The Giant Anteater weighs in between 40 to 90 pounds on average. Their length is usually between 3 1/2 to 4 feet. The snout can be 1 1/2 feet in length. The Giant Anteater has a large tail measuring an 2 to 3 feet in length.

The Giant Anteater is a solitary animal. Only a mother and her young remain together until the young is independent. Having little need for communication they have a few vocal calls, consisting of snarls, grunts or hisses.

Breeding can occur at any time of the year. Females give birth standing up, and the new born anteater will immediately climb onto the mother's back. The young anteater remains with their mother for around 2 years. The young anteater will suckle from the mother for 2 to 6 months. For the first six to nine months a mother carries her young on her back.

As the name suggests, the Giant Anteater is the largest living species of anteater found in the world.

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Brazilian Tapir (Anta)

Brazilian Tapir

Anta

The Brazilian Tapir (or Anta in Portuguese), is also referred the Lowland Tapir. The Brazilian Tapir is one of four species in the tapir family The other three are the Mountain Tapir, which roam the Andes Mountains of northern South America, the Malayan Tapir, the only tapir of Asia found in Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia, and the Baird's Tapir, which is native to Mexico and Central America.. The Brazilian Tapir is the largest wild land animal in South America.

The Brazilian Tapir is dark brown in color, with a low, erect mane running from the crown down the back of the neck. The Brazilian Tapir's body length is usually between 6 to 8 ft, with a tail of 2 to 4 inches. The Brazilian Tapir has an average weight of 595 lbs. Their height is between 2.5 to 3.5 feet at the shoulder.

The Brazilian Tapir is found near water in the Amazon Rain Forest and River Basin in South America, east of the Andes. These mammals have a range that covers parts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Guianas in the north, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, in the south, and Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador in the West.

The Brazilian Tapir is an excellent swimmer and diver, as well as being able to move quickly on land, even over rugged, mountainous terrain.

The Brazilian Tapir has a life span of approximately 25 to 30 years. In the wild, their principal natural predators are alligators and large cats such as the jaguar and cougar, who often attack the tapir at night when they leave the water and sleep on the riverbank.

Tapirs are known to run and hide in the water when scared.

The Brazilian Tapir is a herbivore. Using their mobile snout, they feed on leaves, buds, shoots, and small branches that they tear from trees, fruit, grasses, and aquatic plants.

The Brazilian Tapir's dwindling numbers are due to a combination of poaching for meat and hide, as well as habitat destruction.

The Brazilian tapir is an endangered animal species, however it has a lower risk of extinction

than the other three tapir species.

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