New record of Bassaricyon medius in the Colombian Caribbean

Abstract

Bassaricyon medius is a medium-sized olingo that inhabits in forested areas from central Panama to west of the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. The species was described based on a specimen from the Colombian Choco. However, it has been little studied at a national scale. In Colombia, the species is currently known only from the Andean and Pacific regions. We document a new record of B. medius from the Caribbean region of Colombia, representing both a geographic and an ecological extension into the dry forest of northern Colombia. To update the distribution, we searched for historical records in the literature, collection vouchers, and databases. The new record is based on photographs on a live adult female B. medius and the skull of the same specimen deposited in the zoological collection of the University of Cordoba. We provide cranial and external morphometric data from the specimen, and we compare this information with morphological descriptions of previous records from Colombia in literature. The new record comes from the area around Sierra Chiquita, Department of Cordoba, and increases the distribution range into the dry forest of northern Colombia. We compiled 18 historical records of the species in the country, all form the Andean and Pacific regions. This record confirms the presence of B. medius in the Colombian Caribbean, updating the known distribution of the species in Colombia that currently includes the departments of Antioquia, Cauca, Choco, Cordoba, Narino, and Valle del Cauca.