Observations sur l’éthologie du tayra Eira barbara (carnivore)

Abstract

The author describes the behavior of a tayra, Eira barbara, kept for five years in a semi-captive state and describes the gaits and postures of the animal on land, in trees and in the water. By its morphology and behavior, the tayra shows a strong arboreal tendency. Its pattern of activity is entirely diurnal. Four types of vocalizations were heard : a growl (a defensive, territorial vocalization), a rapid, low clicking sound when excited or highly sociable, a piercing Kek Kek Kek expressing a higher degree of excitement or a stronger threat, and finally a loud and long drawn-out miaow indicating the highest degree of excitement or impending agression. The different vocalizations of the tayra express for the most part a level of excitement, the nature of the stimulus for each vocalization showing a wide variability. In the wild, the tayra hunts its own food. It feeds on a wide variety of ripe or rotten fruit, fungi and mushrooms. It preys upon reptiles, rodents and birds from the size of a sparrow to that of a wild duck. Amphibians are discarded. The hunting techniques are described : nests are saught and robbed. Carrion is also consummed. The tayra has proved capable of fishing for itself when conditions were favorable. Of a very aggressive nature, it spontaneously attacks animals and birds much larger than itself. The tayra sucks in water while drinking with its head partly submerged. However it will lap in a doglike manner semi-solid foods. Defecation and urination are done anywhere without a preferential site. Grooming consists in vigorous rubbing of the neck and back against tree trunks. The tayra rolls itself in carrion and certain odorous matter in a doglike manner. It marks exclusively with its urine and feces. We observed no glands or specialized secretion. When the tayra has marked, it turns around and smells its marking ; then draws its lips back, uncovering its teeth in a «flehmen» facial expression well known in ungulates. Often it sucks in part of the urine it has just emitted. The social behavior of the tayra with humans are personna-lized and show rank order. The master is dominant (although sometimes used as a partner). He is followed closely, even in a crowd. In the absence of the author, his wife is also followed and never attacked. The tayra models his behavior with subtlety with that of the humans which surround it, attacking the weak or timorous, respecting the others. Even though captured in an ecuadorian forest when approximately four months old, this animal shows remarkable sexual impregnation towards its master : regular marking on human urine, attempted copulation on the forearm. When presented on neutral ground with an adult female tayra, the four year old male showed only very strong aggression. In several vertebrates, the author has noticed that young which were brought up experimentally by another, different species may adopt for sexual partners species quite different from themselves, remaining extremely aggressive towards their own. The ambivalence of aggressive and sexual behavior concern then only their mode of expression.