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Tayra

Eira barbara

Photo by Tukup
Published on Project Noah
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-2.15, -77.69

Field Notes

Description:

Medium sized members of the weasel family. Basically dark brown. One had a creme colored head and the other was completely black, which variance is common in Tayras.

Habitat:

Very common in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador.

Notes:

Tayras are the bane of the Indians trying to raise chickens. These two babies were brought for snake food. We contacted the Quito Zoo and they were in need of a male Tayra (both of these were males), so they were happy to get them and the last time we were at the zoo, they still recognized my wife (who bottle-fed them) and came right over upon hearing her voice. Cool!

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (3)
KarenSaxton
They're just adorable, but I get it. My son raised chickens for 4H and a mink managed to wipe our entire population out. He ended up giving away his favorites to save them
Tukup
We were happy the zoo wanted them, otherwise they would have had to been "disposed" of (snake food). They will stay near a chicken flock until the chickens are all gone and then look for another. The people would have been very upset if we'd released them.

Spotted for Missions

Biodiversity of Ecuador (BioBanco)

Tags

Photographed
PublishedJanuary 27, 2019

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