Paca

This article is about the Central and South American rodent. For other uses, see PACA (disambiguation).

Paca[1]
Lowland paca
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Infraorder: Hystricognathi
Parvorder: Caviomorpha
Superfamily: Cavioidea
Family: Cuniculidae
Miller & Gidley, 1918[3]
Genus: Cuniculus
Brisson, 1762[2]
Type species
Mus paca
Species

Cuniculus paca
Cuniculus taczanowskii
Cuniculus hernandezi (validity questionable)

Synonyms

For Cuniculidae:

  • Agoutidae Gray, 1821
  • Coelogenyidae Gervais, 1849

For Cuniculus:

  • Agouti Lacépède, 1799
  • Caelogenus Fleming, 1822
  • Caelogenys Agassiz, 1842
  • Coelogenus Cuvier, 1807
  • Coelogenys Illiger, 1811
  • Mamcoelogenysus Herrera, 1899
  • Osteopera Harlan, 1825
  • Paca Fischer, 1814
  • Stictomys Thomas, 1924

A paca (from Tupí paka[4]) is a member of the genus Cuniculus of ground-dwelling, herbivorous rodents in South and Central America. It is the only genus in the family Cuniculidae.[5] Pacas are large rodents with dots and stripes on their sides, short ears, and barely visible tails. Pacas are eaten by people in Belize, where they are known as "gibnut" and, having been served to Queen Elizabeth II, "the royal rat".[6][7] In the Amazon basin they are known as "majás". In Guyanese English, it is known as labba from Arawak.[4]

  1. ^ Woods & Kilpatrick 2005
  2. ^ Brisson 1762
  3. ^ Miller & Gidley 1918
  4. ^ a b Simpson, George Gaylord (February 1941). "Vernacular Names of South American Mammals". Journal of Mammalogy. 22 (1): 6. doi:10.2307/1374677. JSTOR 1374677.
  5. ^ Cuniculidae in the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved March 2013.
  6. ^ Zimmern, Andrew (January 29, 2014). "Bizarre Bites: Rat". andrewzimmern.com.
  7. ^ Zimmern, Andrew. "Bizarre Foods: Feasting On A 'Royal Rat'". Travel Channel. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021.