Lowland Paca

The lowland paca, also known by many regional names, is a hystricomorph rodent of the family Cuniculidae. It lives near watercourses in tropical forests, from southern Mexico and Central America through to Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina. The genus has one other member, the mountain paca, which inhabits Andean montane and foothill forests in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. It is listed as Least Concern given its wide distribution, its presumed large population, the existence of a number of protected areas, and because its population is unlikely to decline at anything like the rate that would qualify it for a threatened category. Local extinctions have nonetheless occurred in the south-east of its range, through habitat destruction. In south-eastern Mexico it is hunted and eaten, and the hunting is often excessive at certain times and in certain regions.