| Description: | 15 Agouti
Among the best known of all animals of the American tropics, agoutis (Dasyprocta species)' are prolific rabbit or hare sized rodents that are probably easily farmed. They are valued for food and are hunted throughout most of their range. Indeed, agouti meat, once common in Latin markets. is now difficult to find because of indiscriminate killing. Agouti hunting is already prohibited in Brazil; restaurants in Belem, for example, once offered a variety of "cotta" (agouti) dishes at prices equivalent to those of choice filet mignon, but since the early 1970s they have been banned from serving it. Other countries will probably have to institute similar bans.
Agoutis are active, long legged, and high strung. They flee in panic at the slightest alarm. They do not climb but they do burrow occasionally, being essentially specialized ground dwellers that live in tropical forest regions.
There have been no organized scientific attempts to raise these swift, shy animals in ca |
