Dasyprocta fuliginosa Wagler, 1832

Voss, Robert S., Fleck, David W. & Jansa, Sharon A., 2019, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 5. Rodents, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2024 (466), pp. 1-180 : 102-105

Dasyprocta fuliginosa Wagler, 1832

Figure 43

VOUCHER MATERIAL (N = 8): Boca Río Yaquerana (FMNH 88901, 88902), Nuevo San Juan (AMNH 268266; MUSM 11232), Quebrada Esperanza (FMNH 88903–88906). Additionally, Pavlinov (1994) reported a ZMMU specimen (identified as “ Dasyprocta aguti ”) from Jenaro Herrera that we have not seen.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: Actiamë ( Amanzo, 2006), Choncó ( Amanzo, 2006), Divisor ( Jorge and Velazco, 2006), Itia Tëbu ( Amanzo, 2006), Jenaro Herrera ( Ríos et al., 1974; Tovar, 2011; Gorchov et al., 2004), Río Yavarí ( Salovaara et al., 2003), Río Yavarí-Mirím ( Salovaara et al., 2003), San Pedro ( Valqui, 1999, 2001), Tapiche ( Jorge and Velazco, 2006), Wiswincho ( Escobedo-Torres, 2015).

IDENTIFICATION: Dasyprocta fuliginosa , commonly known as the black agouti, is a distinctively large species with blackish fur that is finely grizzled with white- or gray-tipped hairs. Skins from our region conform closely to the pelage description in Patton and Emmons (2015a), but the rump hairs are very long (forming an overhanging fringe) and are streaked with white (the individual hairs having long white tips), resembling the phenotype those authors attributed to southern Venezuelan specimens.

According to the most recent authoritative review of agouti taxonomy (Patton and Emmons, 2015a), the genus Dasyprocta includes 10 South American species, all of which are allopatric and distinguishable primarily by pelage coloration; apparently, all agoutis have the same karyotype (2 n = 64, FN = 122 or 124), and although size differences are sometimes cited in support of taxonomic assignments, morphometric data are seldom analyzed (or even tabulated). As recognized by Patton and Emmons (2015a), D. fuliginosa is monotypic, occurs throughout most of western Amazonia, and includes several nominal species as subjective junior synonyms: nigra Gray, 1842; nigricans Wagner, 1842; zamorae Allen, 1915b; mesatia Cabrera, 1917; and apurensis Delacour, 1922. Recently reported results from molecular sequence analyses, however, are strikingly inconsistent with the current classification of agoutis.

Ruiz-García et al. (2022) analyzed complete mitochondrial genomes from 93 specimens of Dasyprocta that the authors identified to species a priori based on pelage coloration and geography. Their phylogenetic results suggest that the D. fuliginosa phenotype is shared by several lineages that do not comprise a monophyletic group: one ( “Fuliginosa 3”) was embedded within a predominantly transAndean clade that included specimens of D. punctata Gray, 1842 , whereas another ( “Fuliginosa 4”) was recovered as the sister clade of D. punctata (including “Fuliginosa 3”) + D. leporina (Linnaeus, 1758) . Most sequenced specimens phenotypically identified as D. fuliginosa , however, together with a few identified as D. kalinowskii Thomas, 1897 , were recovered as the sister taxon of D. azarae Lichtenstein, 1823 .

Although some of these relationships were not strongly supported, Ruiz-García et al.’s (2022) results, taken at face value, clearly signal the need for a comprehensive revision of agouti taxonomy. As discussed by the authors, either hybridization followed by mitochondrial introgression or widespread homoplasy in coat-color evolution might explain the observed discrepancies between pelage phenotypes and mtDNA lineages. Both alternatives are taxonomically problematic, but neither can be evaluated at present. 28

An additional, related difficulty concerns the unknown type locality of Dasyprocta fuliginosa , “Brasilia versus flumen Amazonum” ( Wagler, 1832: 1221). According to Allen (1915b), the type might have been collected at or near Borba (on the lower Rio Madeira), but there is no way to be sure and the specimen itself is apparently lost. (Although Wagler said that the type was in Munich, it cannot now be found at the ZSM [A. van Heteren, personal commun.].) On the assumption that it was collected in western Brazil, however, then this name could apply either to the haplogroup that Ruiz-García et al. (2022) called “Fuliginosa 4” or to “Fuliginosa 1,” both of which included western Brazilian sequences. Ruiz-García et al. (2022) did not sequence any specimens from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve, but one sequence from nearby Pucallpa (fig. 1) was recovered in “Fuliginosa 1,” so our material might belong to that lineage.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: The principal name for the black agouti is mëkueste, which can be analyzed as composed of the prefix më- (“hand, forearm, forefoot”) and kueste (“stick”), presumably in reference to its thin front legs. The name for the agouti in most Panoan languages is made or mari, so it is likely that the term mëkueste is a recent coinage, probably in response to word taboo ( Fleck and Voss, 2006). It has one archaic synonym, tsikudu, which can be translated as “gray rump.” In the language used in the Matses’ komok ceremony ( Romanoff et al., 2004), the agouti and the paca are called ana pachi, which means “soft mouth” or “soft tongue.” Two subtypes of agoutis are recognized by Matses hunters: mëkuestedapa (“large agouti”) and mëntsod (meaning unknown).

The agouti is a primary game species for the Matses. Although agouti meat is not as

28 No nuclear loci were sequenced by Ruiz-García et al. (2022), and the correspondence (or lack thereof) between coat-color phenotypes and clade membership cannot be critically assessed because tissues were obtained from roadkill or bushmeat rather than from museum specimens.

esteemed as paca meat, agoutis are often killed because they are the principal pest of Matses swiddens. In fact, the term mëkueste is used to refer to human thieves, and the term ampe (“thief ”) is often used to refer to the agouti (although it is more of a nickname than a real synonym). When it is discovered that an agouti has been eating manioc in a swidden, a hunter will go to his swidden and wait with a shotgun (formerly with bow and arrow) at the place where the agouti had fed on manioc the previous day. Agoutis usually come to swiddens at dawn or in the late afternoon (around 17:00), so that is when a hunter will wait to kill them.

Agoutis are also killed when they are encountered by hunting dogs as the agouti is foraging or feeding in the forest. The dogs chase the agouti until it finds refuge in a burrow or hollow log. When the hunter catches up, he blocks any possible exits with dry or rotten wood, makes a noose from epiphyte stems attached to a short stick, pokes a small hole in the roof of the burrow or hollow log, introduces the noose, and strangles the agouti (the same technique is used for collared peccaries; Voss and Fleck, 2017). If the hunter is not accompanied by hunting dogs, he may shoot an agouti if he sees it before it runs off. Agoutis are also killed from blinds made of palm fronds stuck into the ground near fruiting trees. Such blinds are not made specifically for agoutis, but for any game animal that may come to feed on fallen fruit, including tinamous, wood-quail, acouchies, etc. The hunter simply waits inside the blind and shoots any game animals that approach. Often agoutis do not die right away when shot with an arrow; if they run off, the hunter must follow the blood trail.

The Matses cook agoutis by plucking out the large hairs on its rump, singeing and scraping of the rest of the hairs with a knife, gutting the carcass, cutting it into chunks, and boiling them without skinning. The skin is too tough to eat, but leaving the skin on preserves the tasty subcutaneous fat. There are no food taboos associated with agoutis.

Agoutis make good pets, although they run off when they grow to be adults.

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: Agoutis have very thin front legs, a small head, large eyes, reddish ears, and a little stump for a tail. The most obvious physical characteristic of agoutis is that they are all black, except for a light-gray rump. The gray hairs extend to part of the back, where they are sparser, and even newborns have a gray rump. Agouti tracks are different from those of the paca . Older animals have thick, tough skin.

Agoutis are found in both primary and secondary forest. They are especially common in secondary forest, and they also feed in Matses swiddens.

The agouti dens in hollow logs, hollow trunks of large fallen palm trees, or in burrows, which it lines with dry leaves.

The agouti is strictly diurnal. It forages in the forest for dicot fruits. It mostly eats fruits that have fallen to the ground, but also picks fruit off branches close to the ground. Like the paca , it takes fruits to the same place to eat, near the base of the tree from which they fell, leaving a pile of remains there. It also buries fruits and nuts to eat later. It sometimes takes fruits into its den to eat or to feed its young. It does not leave the remains inside its den or near the entrance, but rather discards them some distance away. It occasionally eats mud at mineral licks.

Agoutis visit Matses swiddens to eat manioc and other crops at dawn and again from late afternoon until dusk. It eats manioc by digging up the ground that covers the tubers, starting at the stem, ruining many tubers. It sits on its haunches to eat and wiggles its ears as it eats.

Agoutis are solitary, except for mothers that travel with their young. Males and females copulate when they encounter one another while foraging during the day, but after copulating they do not stay together. When the female is ready to give birth, it makes its nest in a hollow log that it lines with many dry leaves. It gives birth to two young. It lies down with its young to suckle them, and then leaves to eat fruit. Then it come back to suckle its young again and goes out again