Brazilian guinea pig
species of mammal
The Brazilian guinea pig (Cavia aperea) (preá in Portuguese) is a wild guinea pig species found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Cavia aperea has been successfully mated to the domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus, though many females become infertile in successive generations.
Brazilian guinea pigs are mainly diurnal animals and are narrower and longer than domesticated guinea pigs.
Description
This is a medium-sized guinea pig with an adult length of about 272 mm (11 in) and a weight of 637 grams (22.5 oz). The tail, at around 2.4 mm, is almost non-existent. The dorsal fur is dark olive-brown mixed with brown and black, and the underparts are a pale grey or yellowish-grey.
Its karyotype has 2n = 64 and a reportedly variable FN of 116 or 128 for C. a. aperea and 128 for C. a. pamparum.
Distribution
The Brazilian guinea pig has a wide distribution in South America at altitudes between 400 and 3,000 metres (1,300 and 9,800 ft) above sea level.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Brazilian guinea pig” is species of mammal. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Brazilian, guinea and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q679706. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Brazilian guinea pig” 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.