It was the first morning of my vacation on Grand Cayman Island and I was up early … as always. Instead of following my regular morning routine of making some coffee and then repairing to the desk at my kitchen window, I made coffee and headed out the door to walk down to the beach. The air was luscious, warm, humid and fragrant when I stepped outside and I was so overwhelmed by my surroundings that I didn’t quite know what to focus my attention on. It was at that precise moment, that I caught sight of a “rabbit.”
This, of course, was just my brain trying to make sense of what it had seen. It was the same basic size as a rabbit, but there were several things that seemed off. Did it have those long rabbit ears? It didn’t seem like it, but then again I only caught a fleeting glimpse of the creature. And were the “rabbit’s” legs a little too long and slender? Something just wasn’t quite right, but the creature was gone in an instant and all I could do was mull it over while other species made themselves a little more available for my viewing.
The next morning, I repeated my new routine and once again there was that peculiar rabbit just outside the door of my cottage. This time I got a slightly better look at the creature and I was able to conclude that it definitely wasn’t a rabbit at all. This notion was reinforced when I got a look at the animal’s tracks in the sand. Definitely not a rabbit at all. So what was this mysterious mammal? Well, a quick scan of the internet and my question was answered. This was an animal called an agouti (pronounced ah-goo-tee).
This mammal of Central and South America is sometimes called the “rabbit” by the people of the Cayman Islands, so I didn’t feel too foolish thinking the same thing when I first saw it. I didn’t get a really good look at an agouti until I made my first visit to the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park and it was then that the details really came clear. The fur seemed coarse and the color was too orange to be that of an Eastern cottontail. The shape of the head was also quite different and the creature really did lack the larger ears of a rabbit. This was something completely different.
So, like any naturalist trying to understand something new, I had to consult the official record. This is what I found. The particular species of agouti that I was looking at was the Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata). A relative of guinea pigs, the agouti is a vegetarian that really likes fruit. When feeding, the Agouti will hold food between its front paws, just like a squirrel and they tend to be very shy around humans because they have been used as a source of food. The Central American agouti was introduced to Grand Cayman Island in the early 1900s as a source of wild food for human consumption.
The scientific name “Dasyprocta punctata” is a little, shall we say, delicate to discuss. While the scientific names of some birds are quite magical, like “angel of the forest,” the agouti’s name is much less beautiful. The genus “Dasyprocta” is a combination of the Greek word “dasus,” which means “hairy,” and the Greek word “proktos,” which means “anus.” Remember, I did warn you. The species name “punctata” is Latin for “spotted or dappled,” referring to its coarse, speckled coat. Thus, we are stuck with a translation that says something like, “speckled hairy anus.” Thanks a lot science.
That being said, the sighting of an agouti seemed to spark a lot of excitement in one of the tour guides at the Botanic Park. He called over his group and there were a lot of “ooooohs and ahhhhs” to be heard. I myself was thrilled when I caught sight of three agoutis calmly foraging for food on a quiet side path between the garden areas. It was a tough choice when I was selecting the photograph for today’s column, but I finally decided to go with this one, which shows an agouti sitting on its rump in a perfect profile. If it were standing, you would see that the hind legs are just as thin as the front legs.
I spent a week driving the roads of Grand Cayman Island and although I saw about 10,000 chickens (they were everywhere) I never caught sight of an agouti. Aside from the daily glimpse of an agouti near my cottage every morning, the only place I saw an agouti was at the Botanic Park. I have to guess that, like many of the birds in the park, the agoutis there had become acclimated to humans and had lost a bit of their fear. Day after day, these agoutis saw humans and then humans never made an aggressive move toward them. They still remained vigilant, but they were content to go about their business right out in the open.
This brings us to the end of my March Island Madness series. We have just celebrated the first day of spring here in North America and the migrants are already starting to appear. red-winged blackbirds, common grackles and brown-headed cowbirds have been here for a while now, and just last week I spotted a killdeer standing at the side of a road. The next to arrive should be the tree swallows and Eastern phoebes and I cannot wait. I have to do some work to replace nest boxes that were damaged by winter storms, but things should be ready and waiting for the beginning of April. Yay!
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more information visit www.speakingofnature.com, Speaking of Nature on Facebook, or the Speaking of Nature Podcast.