Member Blog: What is a (cutie) agouti?
Melbourne Zoo's latest addition has visitors scratching their heads. What the heck is a Red-rumped agouti?
"An agouti is a type of big rodent, the cousin to the guinea pig and the capybara. They're a strange mash-up of those two species," says Keeper Tom. "We've definitely noticed some visitors do a double take." Melbourne Zoo hasn't had agoutis for 15 years.
The four brothers - Penne, Fettucine, Linguini and Rigatoni – just arrived from another zoo in Queensland. They have a distinctive and "interesting" look: a sturdy rump propped up on four skinny legs, big feet and long toenails.
“We expected them to be nervous, but they were unbelievably confident,” says Keeper Tom. “They were exploring and feeding immediately. It was really cool to see them looking around their space straight away.”
In their native Brazil, agoutis will forage on the forest floor, eating fallen fruit and using their sharp teeth to crack open hard Brazil nuts.
"That helps them live in quite dense forest where they spend most of their time digging for food. They also bury a lot of their favourite food to return to later," says Keeper Tom. "These guys are very food motivated. They eat root vegetables like pumpkin, parsnip and carrots, but walnuts in the shell are their favourite food. Being rodents, they have these large powerful teeth so it's a natural behaviour for them to be chewing on those hard nuts."
Don't be fooled by their looks - these little guys are very capable. They're actually really powerful, strong animals. They're also incredibly fast - the nice thin legs and big feet help with that.
Visitors will spot the agouti brothers in the same habitat as the Cotton-top tamarins ("They mostly ignore each other. The Tamarins are up high and the agoutis are down low!") along the trail in the Gorilla Rainforest at Melbourne Zoo.
