Pacas

* Eaton (1916) misidentified the Mountain pacas and thought that the Machu Picchu remains represented a new species that he called Agouti thomasi. ❋ Darren Naish (2006)

Dwarf brockets were there (brockets Mazama are a group of small-bodied deer known from Mexico and South America), as were coro-coros (also called bamboo rats Dactylomys, coro-coros are arboreal members of Echimyidae), Mountain pacas Cuniculus taczonowskii*, AND an abrocomid that Eaton recognized as a new species. ❋ Darren Naish (2006)

The dwarf brocket present there turned out to belong to a new species that wasn’t named until 1959 (when Hershkovitz named it Mazama chunyi*), and the coro-coros and mountain pacas present in the tombs have also proved to be cryptic and elusive. ❋ Darren Naish (2006)

They were followed by a number of mice, pacas, and muskrats armed with wheeled containers and double-handed scoops. ❋ Sugu Althomsons (2010)

A pair of armed pacas entered, espied her, and came a-rushing. ❋ Sugu Althomsons (2010)

Why were they joined by the entire infraorder of caviomorph rodents, including guinea pigs, agoutis, pacas, maras, capybaras, chinchillas and lots of others, a large group of characteristically South American rodents, found nowhere else? ❋ RICHARD DAWKINS (2009)

The peccaries, the possums, the coatimundis, the pacas, and the agoutis all forage on the ground; under normal conditions, they are all subject to prédation by pumas and jaguars. ❋ David Quammen (2004)

Terborgh and Winter referred only generally to “excessive densities,” but in a later paper, Terborgh reported that coatimundis, pacas, and agoutis were more than ten times as abundant on Barro Colorado as at similar mainland sites. ❋ David Quammen (2004)

Marmosets and pacas scampered over the boulders and talus in search of nuts and berries. ❋ Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- (2000)

Both pacas and agoutis are found in most parts of tropical ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)

High above in the air soared the great eagle watching his opportunity to swoop down on the pacas or agoutis, his natural prey. ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)

Even the winged birds had flew up from the spot, and perched upon the branches; the cavies took to the water; the pacas and agouties to their burrows; and the monkeys to the tops of the adjacent trees; and nothing remained on the ground but the empty shells of the juvias. ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)

They dwell in small troops or families, of six or seven individuals each, and their food is furnished by the _pacas, agoutis_, and other small rodent animals of tropical America. ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)

The pacas were creatures a little larger than hares, and not unlike them, except that their ears were shorter. ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)

The agoutis bore a considerable resemblance to the pacas. ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)

That was entirely the work of the rodent animals, the pacas, cavies, and agoutis. ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)