Critically Endangered
Santa Catarina's guinea pig
Cavia intermedia
Santa Catarina's guinea pig is a rodent in the family Caviidae (order Rodentia) — Cavia intermedia, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to Brazil.
Appearance
Their cylindrical bodies are in shades of brown or gray and are carried by short limbs.
Santa Catarina's guinea pig is a rodent approximately 20–40 cm in length.
Range and habitat
The small mammal is endemic to the Moleques do Sul Archipelago, located in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. The archipelago formed about 8,000 years ago, having a total of three islands with a surface area of only 10.5 hectares (26 acres). Santa Catarina's guinea pig is phylogenetically comparable, and said to be a common ancestor of the species Cavia magna, who also inhabited the island.
Grasslands on the surrounding islands have a higher biomass and reach about 50 cm, however in feeding areas of the cavies the grasses only reach 5 cm high. Invasive species of lice, mites or grasses brought to the islands are also a potential threat to the population.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Because of the species' low population size and small geographic location, C. Intermedia is considered Critically Endangered. In a report published by International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC), along with the Zoological Society of London, C.intermedia was termed as one of the hundred most threatened species in the world. Due to the cavies small feeding patch of 0.77 ha overexploitation when the population density is higher creates a natural fluctuation in the mortality of the species.
Implementation of land management and active monitoring may protect the species from other possible anthropogenic or natural threats.
Santa Catarina's guinea pig is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Santa Catarina's guinea pig, Wikidata item Q1766902. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
