Ruatan Island Agouti (Guatusa) on Utila?

Several days ago I saw a small, ruddy mammal that made me think of a Capybara while driving down a back road in Utila. The creature scampered off quickly, so no picture, but I got a good look at it. It was the same ruddy color as the road I was driving on, rabbit sized, short ears, blocky head, no visible tail. It walked sort of like a deer even though it was clearly a rodent.

Today I asked our our baby sitter about it and she says it is a "guatusa" and wikipedia reveals that a guatusa is more commonly known as a Agouti. Wikipedia also shows that there is a critically endangered endemic species of Agouti , the Ruatan Island Agouti or Dasyprocta ruatanica, known on Roatan Island several miles to the east of here.

Googling reveals this article in spanish from 2015 outlining the hunting of Agouti on Utila , but doesn't go as far as to call them the endangered species.

Unless these are a population of agouti introduced more recently, I suspect there is another population of Ruatan Island Agouti living on Utila. I hope to investigate this further and maybe get a photo of the animal to upload.

Posted on July 12, 2022 10:18 PM by jeffrey_simeon