HUTIAS: Capromyidae

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Hutias are medium to large, stocky rodents with broad, round heads. They have small eyes and short, rounded ears. Their head and body length is 14 to 32 inches (36 to 80 centimeters) and their tail length is 1.4 to 17 inches (3.5 to 43.1 centimeters). They weigh 1.1 to 18.7 pounds (0.5 to 8.5 kilograms). Their stomachs are divided into three compartments, making it one of the most complex stomachs in all rodents.

Hutias have short legs and five toes on each foot. Each toe has a strong, usually curved, claw. Their fur is generally thick and coarse and the color is usually various shades of black, brown, or gray, with the underside fur being slightly lighter.

GEOGRAPHIC RANGE

Hutias are found exclusively in the Caribbean, particularly Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

HABITAT

Hutias usually live in forests, plantations, scrublands, marshy areas, and mountainous, rocky areas of rainforest. Brown's hutia, also known as the Jamaican hutia, usually lives on exposed areas of limestone in the interior of Jamaica. They build their nests in rock crevices or tunnels. The largest populations of hutia are in Cuba, including the Cuban hutia, black-tailed hutia, and prehensile-tailed hutia.

DIET

Some hutias, such as the eared hutia, are omnivores, meaning that they eat both plants and flesh, but eat mostly plants. Their diet includes leaves, fruit, and bark, and occasionally lizards, and small animals. Some species, such as Brown's hutia, are herbivores, meaning that they eat only plants.

BEHAVIOR AND REPRODUCTION

While very shy towards humans, hutias are usually extremely social with each other. They engage in various activities as a group, including foraging for food and grooming. They generally live in social groups and do not seem to be territorial.

Some hutias are terrestrial, meaning they live mainly on the ground, while other species of hutia are primarily arboreal, meaning they live mostly in treetops. Most species are diurnal, meaning they are mostly active during the day. Brown's hutia is nocturnal, meaning it is most active at night.

Hutias breed year-round and have one to three litters of babies a year. Females have a gestation period, the length of time they carry their young in the womb, of 110 to 150 days. Females have one to six babies per litter with an average litter size of one or two. The mothers nurse their young until they are about five months old, and the young are able to reproduce at ten months. The average lifespan is eight to eleven years.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

The Bahamian hutia was once common throughout the Bahamas until the first European settlers arrived in the 1600s. Their numbers then started to drop due to hunting and destruction of its habitat and it was believed extinct by the 1800s. In 1966, however, a survey expedition discovered hundreds of Bahamian hutias living on the small remote uninhabited island of East Plana Cay. The mammal became a protected species in 1968 and by the start of the twenty-first century, numbered about 10,000. It has been introduced to several nearby small, uninhabited islands where it is thriving. It is listed by IUCN as Vulnerable due to its limited geographic range.

HUTIAS AND PEOPLE

Some species of hutia are widely hunted by humans for their meat, such as Brown's hutia in Jamaica, despite its threatened status. In some areas of Cuba hutias are abundant and considered an agricultural pest by farmers. There is growing concern among conservationists that more species will become extinct soon due to human activities. Brown's hutia is continuing to drop in population despite its protected status under Jamaica's Wildlife Protection Act of 1945, which is rarely enforced.

CONSERVATION STATUS

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists five species that have recently become Extinct, died out; six species that are Critically Endangered, facing an extremely high risk of extinction; and four species that are Vulnerable, facing a high risk of extinction.

CUBAN HUTIA (Capromys pilorides): SPECIES ACCOUNT

Physical characteristics: Cuban hutias, also known as Desmarest's hutias, are the largest species of hutia. They have a head and body length of 18 to 35 inches (46 to 90 centimeters), a tail length of 6 to 12 inches (15.2 to 30 centimeters) and a weight of 6.6 to 18.7 pounds (3 to 8.5 kilograms). They have short, stocky legs and "waddle" when they move. Their feet are broad and each foot has five toes with prominent claws.

They have thick, coarse fur and on the upper body, which can be various shades of black, gray, brown, red, yellow, and cream. Their underside fur is usually softer and a lighter shade.

Geographic range: These hutias live on mainland Cuba and its surrounding islands.

Habitat: Their habitat includes tropical rainforest, mangrove forests, marshy areas, scrubland, and the mountains of eastern Cuba.

Diet: Cuban hutias are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and flesh, but eat mostly plants. Their diet includes leaves, fruit, bark, lizards, and small animals.

Behavior and reproduction: Cuban hutias are shy and usually live in pairs, although pairs have often been observed living in larger, loosely-associated groups. They are extremely social among others of their species. They are primarily arboreal, meaning they live mostly in treetops, and diurnal, meaning they are most active during the day. One of the Cuban hutias' main types of social behavior is a combination of grooming and play wrestling between a pair.

Cuban hutias breed all year but births peak in June. Females have a gestation period, the length of time they carry their young in the womb, of 110 to 140 days. Females have one to six babies per litter with the average litter size of two or three offspring. The mothers nurse their young until they are about five months old and reach sexual maturity at ten months. The average lifespan is eight to eleven years.

Cuban hutias and people: Cuban hutias are hunted by humans for their meat. In some areas of Cuba they are in such abundance that they are considered an agricultural pest by farmers.

Conservation status: The Cuban hutia is not currently threatened. While the Cuban hutia is abundant in many areas of the island-nation, their population has decreased drastically in the mountains of eastern Cuba. ∎

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Books:

Macdonald, David. The New Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2001.

National Research Council. "Hutia." In Microlivestock: Little-Known Small Animals with a Promising Economic Future. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1991. Online at http://books.nap.edu/books/030904295X/html/251.html (accessed on July 12, 2004).

Nowak, Ronald M. Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Periodicals:

Huchon, Dorothée, and Emmanuel J. P. Douzery. "From the Old World to the New World: A Molecular Chronicle of the Phylogeny and Biogeography of Hystricognath Rodents." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (August 2001): 238–251.

Nedbal, Michael A., et al. "Molecular Systematics of Hystricognath Rodents: Evidence from the Mitochondrial 125 rRNA Gene." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution(September 1994): 206–220.

Web sites:

Myers, Phil. "Family Capromyidae." Animal Diversity Web. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Capromyidae.html (accessed on July 12, 2004).

Reis, Brianna. "Capromys pilorides." Animal Diversity Web. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Capromys_pilorides.html (accessed on July 12, 2004).

Raffo, Erica. "Geocapromys_brownii." Animal Diversity Web. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Geocapromys_brownii.html (accessed on July 12, 2004).