Con Paca

Paca is a large rodent, living in a tropical rainforest, and has the scientific name of Agouti paca. They often live near water, preferring to live on the banks of smaller streams on the banks of a large river. Paca was good at swimming and often escaped to the water whenever threatened. Normally they live quietly but when walking on dry leaves, they like to play, causing a lot of noise.

(Photo: adzstock)

The body of coca looks healthy. The coat is dark brown, with white streaks on the back and sides. Belly hair is all white. Big head, big cheek, protruding eyes, strong legs, forelegs with 4 nails, 5 hind feet. My body is about 79cm long, with a short tail about 3cm. Weight about 10kg. Paca has a loud cry, a cry that is almost like a laugh.

Paca pointed out to eat at night, sleeping in a cave during the day, so people rarely see them. The cave is dug under the tree or in the rock pile on the shore or on the slope. The cave has many exit doors, hidden with leaves. Their caves are usually about 2m deep.

This type of rodent mainly feeds on easily digestible leaves, roots and fruits. Le Persea gratissima and mango Mangifera indica are 2 things Paca likes to eat the most. However, they also damage crops, eat potatoes, cassava, sugarcane, corn and many other crops. Paca did not climb, only on the ground, so when she wanted to eat fruits, they could only wait for the animals living on the trees (like monkeys) to make fruits fall to the ground. In the season with lots of fruits, they eat a lot and become fat like a pig. After that time, fruit is less, they will switch to eat mainly leaves, so they are easily sick.

Paca's digestive system is very unique :

(Photo: mammalogy) Large and long gut suitable for digesting leaves by bacteria fermentation. One thing in particular, Paca eats her own stool, their body will digest once again the type of excrement they have just emitted, to remove the remaining nutrients in the stool .

Most of the time in life they live alone. Paca female started breeding when she was about 1 year old, each year gave birth to 2 litters, each child had 1 child but sometimes 2 children, pregnant time was about 118 days.

In nature, jaguars often catch this rodent. Paca avoids wild animals by swimming into the water and only leaving the cave to find food in the evening. Small Paca are easy to die during a rare period of fruit (from November to March of the next year) because of hunger and because at this time they are more likely to be eaten by animals because they have to roam outside to find what Put it in the stomach.

In some places, Paca species are in danger of disappearing due to excessive hunting by humans. Because Paca's flesh is delicious and fat, they become one of the most hunted human animals in Central and South America. Their meat is of high value in the market. In addition, they are destroyed mercilessly because they often destroy crops.

Paca distributed from South Mexico to Brazil. Their lifespan is about 3.5 years in their natural environment and about 7 years in a human-nourished environment.

(Photo: visualpursuit)