Agouti Profile
Rodents are more familiar to most of us in the form of small disease vectors like rats and mice, and although even these examples are exceptional and unfairly judged animals in their own right, there’s a whole wide world out there, among what is the most diverse order of mammals on the planet.
Back when South America was connected to Africa, African rat-like rodents invaded the land, and when it broke off and drifted into the middle of the ocean for millions of years, these rodents became unique and peculiar and diversified into a plethora of animals that look like a mix of all kinds of things.
Agoutis are a great example: deer-like squirrel-esque guinea pigs from the forests of South America.
Agouti Facts Overview
| Habitat: | Forests, brush, |
| Location: | South America, Central America, Mexico |
| Lifespan: | 20 years or more in some species |
| Size: | 40.5–76 cm (15.9–29.9 in) long |
| Weight: | 2.4–6 kg (5.3–13.2 lb) |
| Colour: | Reddish-brown or orange, often shiny |
| Diet: | Fruits, nuts, and seeds, occasionally small insects, eggs, shellfish or fungi |
| Predators: | Medium to large predators: eagles, caimans, jaguars, humans |
| Top Speed: | Very springy |
| No. of Species: | 12+ |
| Conservation Status: | From Data Deficient to Endangered or Least Concern, depending on the species. |
Agoutis are special little seed-dispersing mammals from the forests of South America. They are fast, secretive and camouflaged and contribute significantly to the forest ecosystems they inhabit.
Sadly, some are endangered after having been trapped on islands with humans, but the mainland species are trending much better, still able to evade detection where there is ample forest cover.
Interesting Agouti Facts
1. They’re New World Rodents
Rodents in South America are so weird they were once thought to be in a different order entirely from the rest of rodent kind.
Smarter and more informed approaches to their phylogeny have proven this to be false, and so the order Caviomorpha, which contains all the New World rodents has been reduced to a subgroup, or parvorder.
This parvorder is home to the largest species of rodent alive today, the capybara, and also the largest known species of rodent ever to have lived (which sadly no longer does): Josephoartigasia. The former weighs around 60 kg, and the latter around ten times this much.
So, the 6kg agouti isn’t the largest but is a big rodent, around the mass of the largest of ground squirrels.
Agoutis are one of two genera in their family, which they share with smaller and sneeze-sounding acouchis, or “tailed agoutis”, because they have something the agoutis don’t.
Pacas were once thought to be members of the Agouti family, but were recently deemed too weird and have been placed in their own family.
2. Agoutis of Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is, ironically, a real place. It’s a small island off Roatán, another small island, off the coast of Honduras (not an island, anymore).
Interestingly, while mainland Honduras does have a species of Agouti, the species on Roatán and Fantasy Island is distinct, and faced with nothing more intimidating than the wide-berthed unarmed Gringos visiting the islands, this species should be doing very well.
Unfortunately, the native islanders do hunt the agoutis, and tourism has encroached into their habitats, so while the mainland, Central American agoutis are of Least Concern and stable, the Fantasy Island agoutis are now endangered.
One reason mainland species are doing better is as a result of how stealthy they are.
3. They’re very shy
Agoutis are diurnal by nature but highly adaptable. They do their very best to stay out of the way of humans and will comfortably switch to a nocturnal schedule where human populations are nearby.
They’re also nimble and quiet and can remove themselves from a situation quickly. They are very camouflaged and good at standing still in the presence of danger to remain out of sight.
Agoutis aren’t the most social animals and prefer smaller groups of just a handful, but they do communicate with one another well.
4. They talk amongst themselves
Agouti communities are essentially just a breeding pair, occupying a territory of up to two hectares, where they will feed from the fruit trees that grow there.
They mark this with urine and faeces, and if they stumble into another pair’s territory they’ll be chased out.
Serious fights can occur, with genuinely dangerous wounding involved, and aggressive communication involves raising the hairs on the back of the neck and rump and drumming on the ground.
Vocalisations in this context sound like barking dogs, but couples will also talk to one another more calmly, or excitedly, using a mix of grunts, squeals and screams.
They can also be heard very distinctively gnawing on nuts. 1 2
5. They have good hearing
Like a shark, a mile offshore, suddenly changing course moments after you slice your toe on some coral, it’s said the agouti responds to the distant sound of fruit falling from a tree.
The sound of a ripe fruit falling is one way to bring agoutis in, if you should ever need to, and this obsession with fruit is what makes them incredibly significant animals in the forest ecosystem. 3
6. They are custodians of the forest
From one end of the food web, agoutis provide food for some of the most iconic predators of the South American rainforests. Jaguars and eagles put top-down pressure on the species and help sustain themselves on a healthy amount of agouti, but this is just the start of their significance.
The bite strength of the agouti is one of the only such bites powerful enough to open Brazil nuts, which require their seeds to be opened by animals in order for them to reproduce.
Being so tough, only a handful of animals can crack them, so the agouti’s feeding habits help spread this tree around the forest.
The fruits that they eat also require dispersal through the agouti, and agouti poop isn’t just rich in fertiliser, it’s also rife with seeds from fruit trees, all wrapped up in a nutrient pack and ready to germinate.
Humans are another predator of the agouti, but they are primarily caught using traps, as they are hard to corner!
7. They’re fast
The agouti standing or sitting position is one that the Gracie family would be proud of. Ever ready to defend themselves, they are exceptionally fast at both springing and leaping and are said to be able to ping up into the air more than two metres from a standing start.
If pausing motionless doesn’t work, they can go from standstill to full speed in the blink of an eye and will retreat into escape holes they have already scouted out inside tree trunks.
If the threat is big, like a large cat, the fleeing agouti’s grunts may alert conspecifics to the danger and they will keep away, but if it’s a snake, they may all come together and attack it. 4
Agouti Fact-File Summary
Scientific Classification
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Dasyproctidae |
| Genus: | Dasyprocta |
Fact Sources & References
- “Dasyprocta leporina (Red-rumped Agouti)”, The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago.
- “Hystricognathi hystricognath rodents”, Animal Diversity Web.
- “Dasyprocta punctata Central American agouti”, Animal Diversity Web.
- Leslie McGinnis, “Dasyprocta mexicana Mexican agouti”, Animal Diversity Web.