Abstract
Coendou ichillus was first described in 2001 by Voss and da Silva, with a range from Amazonian Ecuador to Iquitos, Peru. Here, we describe an adult female Coendou ichillus specimen collected in a Tomahawk trap in the forest canopy of the Lower Urubamba Region of Peru in October 2013. We also describe pathologies and behaviors observed through 379 camera trapping photo events (2,196 photos) gathered in natural canopy bridges over the course of a year (7,198 trap nights), including information on activity period over the course of the day and over the course of the lunar cycle. We conservatively estimate that 17 individuals were photographed, including one juvenile. Being 900 km away from Iquitos, Peru (the site of the closest record), discovery of this species in the Lower Urubamba constitutes a significant range extension.
Highlights
Our understanding of the diversity and distributions of Neotropical porcupines of the vestitus-group has been very much thwarted by the lack of specimens and locality records
Voss and da Silva (2001) discussed two hypotheses for why these diminutive species might be so rarely detected: 1) they might have very restricted distributions in western Amazonia, and 2) their apparent rarity might be an artifact of inadequate collection
In this paper we report one such new locality record—and a significant range extension—for the recently described species Coendou ichillus, which is here reported from the Lower Urubamba Region (LUR) of Peru
Summary
Our understanding of the diversity and distributions of Neotropical porcupines of the vestitus-group has been very much thwarted by the lack of specimens and locality records. Keywords Neotropical porcupines, Coendou ichillus, Peru, biodiversity, distribution, Urubamba, Rodentia, camera trap
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