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agouti

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agouti (əg`tē), name applied to rabbit-sized rodents of the genus Dasyprocta, found in Central and South America and in the West Indies. They have slender limbs with five front and three hind toes, rudimentary tails, and coarse rough hair that varies from reddish to dark brown depending upon the species. Agoutis are forest dwellers; they eat fruits, leaves, roots, nuts, and sugarcane. They are good swimmers and fast runners. Agouti is occasionally used instead of Cuniculus as the generic name of the related paca, or spotted cavy cavy , name for 14 species of South American rodents of the family Caviidae, including the domestic guinea pig. The wild cavies are usually small, rounded, and tailless, with fur of a uniform shade of brown.
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. Agoutis are classified in the phylum Chordata Chordata , phylum of animals having a notochord, or dorsal stiffening rod, as the chief internal skeletal support at some stage of their development. Most chordates are vertebrates (animals with backbones), but the phylum also includes some small marine invertebrate
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, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Rodentia, family Dasyproctidae.

agouti

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Agouti (Dasyprocta).
(credit: Warren Garst/Tom Stack & Associates)
Any of several species (genus Dasyprocta) of rabbit-sized rodents that occur in the American tropics (southern Mexico to northern South America). Agoutis are 16–24 in. (40–60 cm) long and have a long body, small ears, either a vestigial tail or none at all, and slender feet with long, hooflike claws. Their wiry fur is reddish brown to blackish, with individual hairs banded in what is called the agouti pattern. Agoutis generally live in forests and eat roots, leaves, and fruit.


agouti [ə′güd·ē]
(vertebrate zoology)
A hystricomorph rodent,Dasyprocta,in the family Dasyproctidae, with 13 species.


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Occasionally a deer, or a Guanaco (wild Llama) may be seen; but the Agouti (Cavia Patagonica) is the commonest quadruped.
On these same plains of La Plata, we see the agouti and bizcacha, animals having nearly the same habits as our hares and rabbits and belonging to the same order of Rodents, but they plainly display an American type of structure.
 
 
 
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