The acrobatic cavy (''

Kerodon The genus ''Kerodon'' (vernacular name Mocos; Rock Cavies) contains two species of South American rock cavies, related to capybaras and guinea pigs. They are found in semiarid regions of northeast Brazil known as the Caatinga. This area has a roc ...

acrobata'') also known as the Acrobatic Moco and Climbing Cavy is a

cavy Caviidae, the cavy family, is composed of rodents native to South America and includes the domestic guinea pig, wild cavies, and the largest living rodent, the capybara. They are found across South America in open areas from moist savanna to tho ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

native to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

rainforest. It is found from

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goi ...

state to

Tocantins Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 20 ...

state, west of the Espigão Mestre,

Serra Geral The Serra Geral (General Mountains) is a mountain range in southern Brazil, constituting the southern portion of the Serra do Mar system which runs along Brazil's southeastern coast. The Serra Geral runs parallel to the Atlantic coast in Santa ...

de Goiás, and is also found in Terra Ronca State Park.

Diet

They are herbivores known to eat a generalized diet of leaves, flowers, bud, bark and fruit from 16 different types of native plantations.

Habitat

Found in seasonally dry areas of the Amazon rainforest , often in limestone outcrops and emerge to forage and climb trees.

Appearance

Acrobatic Cavies are a large rodent averaging 1 kg in weight, their fur ranges from dark grey to light brown with orange-brown feet, mostly observed on hindfeet. Their tails are

vestigial Vestigiality is the retention, during the process of evolution, of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on co ...

Phylogeny

The Acrobatic Cavy belongs to the order Rodentia, in the family Caviidae (Guinea-pig like rodents) which has two subfamilies (formerly three) with Acrobatic Cavies being in a new subfamily Hydrochaerinae alongside Capybaras and the closely related

Rock Cavy The rock cavy or ''mocó'' (''Kerodon rupestris'') is a cavy species endemic to eastern Brazil which has also been introduced to the Atlantic island of Fernando de Noronha. The rock cavy is called ''mocó'' in Brazilian Portuguese, and ''koriko ...

from Eastern

References

"
Kerodon acrobata Moojen, Locks & Langguth 1997 - Plazi TreatmentBank
'".
treatment.plazi.org
'. Retrieved 2022-06-19. de Souza Portella, Alexandre; Vieira, Emerson M. (2016-07-01). "
Diet and trophic niche breadth of the rare acrobatic cavy Kerodon acrobata (Rodentia: Caviidae) in a seasonal environment
'". ''Mammal Research''. 61 (3): 279–287. doi:10.1007/s13364-016-0275-z.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs ...

2199-241X. Cavies Mammals of Brazil Mammals described in 1997 Endemic fauna of Brazil {{rodent-stub