Common bale, limpet shark and spotted rabbit are just some of the names that the species receives Cuniculus paca. Native to South America, this mammal is a histricomorphic rodent belonging to the Cuniculidae family that lives in the humid tropical forests of Central and South America..
The bale is a mammal that lacks a tail, its legs are short, and it has an elongated head. It measures between 60 to 80 cm in length and weighs around 9.5 kg, the males being larger than the females. Its fur is differentiated dark brown with whitish spots on each side of the body..
His family group is made up of the female, the male and the offspring. The female has a calf or two per year, which she feeds with mother's milk for up to 3 months. The young at 6 months, becomes independent and at 8 months they already reach sexual maturity.
The longevity of the bale is approximately 13 years. In the wild, they are preyed on by felines, dogs and hunted mostly by farmers who want to protect their crops..
During the day they rest in their burrows, while at night they go out in search of food. Their diet is dominated by fruits that fall to the ground but also by seeds, leaves, roots and tubers. The species contributes to the dispersal of seeds as well as the composition and plant diversity of tropical forests.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declares bale as a species of Least Concern. In some countries such as Costa Rica and Panama, it is an important source of protein for human consumption, which is why controlled hunting of the animal has been carried out for decades..
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Adults measure 65 to 82 cm in the case of males and the length of females ranges from 60 to 70 cm with an average weight of 9.5 kg in both sexes. The coat ranges from reddish brown to dark brown, accompanied by whitish spots on each side. Its lower part exhibits a lighter coloration.
The bales have practically no tail, their legs are short and their heads are large and blunt (slightly pointed). This makes them slow on land, but fast on the water. They have four toes on their front legs and five toes on their hind legs..
They build their burrows near rivers or they may occupy burrows built by other animals. These burrows are designed with an internal cavity to rest during the day, as well as a couple of entrances and a couple more of exits.
The emergency exits are covered with dry leaves and debris, while the other cavities are left open.
They have a highly developed visual system as a result of their nocturnal lifestyle. They are provided with ganglion cells of the retina and a tepetum lucidum acting as a mirror that reflects light rays increasing the light available to photoreceptors, allowing you to see well in the dark.
They have modified zygomatic arches and maxillary bones that are coupled to form an resonance chamber. When air is pushed through the chamber, a low thud is produced, being the only call of the kind..
They are nocturnal, their activities being limited in dark hours while during the day they sleep sheltered in burrows or also in a hollow log. They often avoid open areas during periods of high lunar illumination and stay in the forest to guard against being predated..
C. paca is a histricomorphic rodent mammal (rodents distinguished by a well-developed zygomatic arch) belonging to the superfamily Cavioidea, family Cuniculidae, genus Cuniculus.
Previously, the genus name was Agouti, until the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature determined that the Cuniculis takes precedence over the name Agouti.
The gender Cuniculus It includes two species under the name of paca: spotted or lowland paca and mountain paca. The species referred to under the name C. paca refers to the stained bale. The mountain bale is known as C. taczanowskii and inhabits the Andean mountain forests of South America.
There are five subspecies of lowland bales: C. paca guanta (Lonnberg, 1921), C. paca mexicanae (Hogmann, 1908), C. paca nelsoni (Goldman, 1913), C. paca virgata (Bangs, 1902) and C. paca paca (Linnaeus, 1766). The latter is the main subspecies.
The species inhabits a wide range of humid areas of evergreen and submerged tropical forest (in which part of its vegetation loses its foliage in drought). However, they tend to frequent gallery forests, characterized by dense vegetation that grows around rivers or in stagnant waters..
The bale can also be found in mangroves, cloud forests (or cloud forest), and pine-oak forests, burrowing around riparian areas near water. In some cases, it may occupy the burrow of another animal.
The density and population range of the bale will be determined by the presence of fruit trees, the abundance of fruits on the ground, the type of forest, the availability of shelters and the presence of predators..
It is widely distributed in Central and South America, starting from the east and south of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama to Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and much of Brazil. In addition, it has been introduced in the Lesser Antilles and Cuba.
The adults occupy a home range of approximately 3 to 4 hectares, where the male and female build their own burrows in different parts of the range to defend their territory. This strategy allows the bale pair to monitor the range and protect it from potential intruders and predators..
Bales are monogamous mammals, that is, they only have one sexual partner. The male establishes dominance and reinforces the pair bond by urinating on the female. The pair reproduce uniformly throughout the year and usually have one or two young a year..
The heat or estrous cycle of the female C. paca It is approximately 30 days, while the gestation time is usually 90 to 120 days in nature, extending to 150 days in captivity. Newborn pups reach a length of 23 cm with a weight of 600 grams in the case of females and 738 grams in males..
The young are born fully developed, with their eyes open and with the ability to run and eat solid food in one day. However, the female feeds her young with breastfeeding for 3 months..
Newborns grow quite fast, reaching 4 kg in three months and 6 kg in six months. They become independent at 2-6 months and, as they grow, the young follow their mothers to imitate their behavior. Both females and males reach sexual maturity at 8 or 12 months.
Bale life is estimated to be 13 years, with a high survival rate of 80%. Between the months of November to March, food is scarce, so it is believed that this is a limiting factor that affects the size of the population..
In this period, the mammal is weakened due to the lack of food, which is why it is usually more easily predated..
It is a frugivorous species, that is, it feeds mainly on fruits that fall from the ground, but they eat a great variety of seeds, leaves, roots and tubers. Their eating habits contribute to seed dispersal, composition and plant diversity, especially in ancient neo-tropical forests..
For some fruitful plants like Attalea oleifera (pindoba) and Hymenea courbaril (carob), the bale is crucial in the regeneration of both plant varieties.
They select fruits with high energy value such as mango (Mangifera indica), papaya or milky (Carica papaya), and avocado (Persea americana) to name a few. They can eat the whole fruit (fleshy part and seed) or discard the seed.
When there is a shortage of fruit, the bales consume leaves and also survive on stored fat. They often change feeding sites in late August based on feed availability.
They are preyed upon by jaguars (Panthera onca), cougars (Puma concolor) and also by hunting dogs. Farmers tend to hunt them for damage to crops, mainly cocoa plantations and fruit trees. These small rodents have the ability to swim as an escape method from this type of predator..
Bale meat is considered an important food source. However, people who regularly eat their meat can suffer from leptopyrosis, since this mammal is a host of the microorganism Leptospira interrogans, causing the disease.
The species is also an intermediate host for the microbe Echinoccus vogeli, Causing echinococcosis, a parasitic disease that, in its infective phase, can lodge in the liver and cause a strong infection in humans.
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