Hispaniolan hutia
species of mammal
The Hispaniolan hutia (Plagiodontia aedium) is a small, rat-like mammal endemic to forests on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic). It lives in burrows or trees, and is active at night when it feeds on roots and fruits. A member of the hutia subfamily (Capromyinae), Threats to the Hispaniolan hutia include habitat loss and introduced species, such as rats or feral dogs.
The Hispaniolan hutia is the only living species of the genus Plagiodontia; the other two species, also native to Hispaniola, are extinct. There are two subspecies, Cuvier's hutia (P. a. aedium) and the Dominican hutia (P. a. hylaeum). Though many mammals were once native to the island, only the Hispaniolan hutia and the shrew-like Hispaniolan solenodon, which shares the same forest habitat, are alive today.
Name
The genus name Plagiodontia means "oblique tooth" in Greek, referring to its teeth. The common name "hutia" comes, via Spanish jutía, from the animal's name in Taíno, an Indigenous language of the Caribbean.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hispaniolan hutia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.