Tamandua tetradactyla (Linnaeus)

VOSS, ROBERT S., LUNDE, DARRIN P. & SIMMONS, NANCY B., 2001, The Mammals Of Paracou, French Guiana: A Neotropical Lowland Rainforest Fauna Part 2. Nonvolant Species, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2001 (263), pp. 1-236 : 66-67

Tamandua tetradactyla (Linnaeus)

Although we encountered this species only in 1992, when what was perhaps a single individual was heard twice (tearing apart dead wood or termite nests in trees at night) and sighted once (walking down a road at 07:20 hours) during a two­day interval, tamanduas are apparently not uncommon locally. P. Petronelli (personal commun., 1993) estimated that they are typically seen about five or six times a year by local forestry workers.

Husson (1978) referred the tamanduas of the Guiana subregion to Tamandua longicaudata (Wagner) , but we follow Wetzel’s (1975) revision of Tamandua in regarding longicaudata as a junior synonym of tetradactyla . Wetzel’s revision should be consult­ ed for diagnostic characters, as well as for a discussion of the considerable geographic and nongeographic variation in coat color of this species. Although Wetzel’s map (op. cit.: fig. 1) indicates that only partially vested, unvested, or melanistic specimens are known from French Guiana, our single sighting (by DPL in broad daylight at a distance of ca. 10 m) was of a yellow individual with a distinctly blackish vest.

PRIMATES

Six species of primates are definitely known to occur at Paracou, or to have occurred there in the recent past, and a seventh species could be expected (see appendix 1). Unfortunately, the local primate fauna has been decimated by uncontrolled hunting, a process that accelerated following completion of the new asphalt highway from Kour­ ou to Sinnamary in 1992. Even at the begining of our fieldwork in 1991, however, spider monkeys ( Ateles paniscus ), sakis ( Pithecia pithecia ), and capuchins ( Cebus sp. ) were rare. By 1994 (our last field season), only howlers ( Alouatta seniculus ) and tamarins ( Saguinus midas ) were commonly heard or seen in the vicinity of our camp, although capuchins could still be found a few kilometers away. Squirrel monkeys ( Saimiri sci­ ureus) have probably always been local vagrants, not regular residents.

Thus, we never had the opportunity to census an intact primate community at Paracou, and some of the observations cited below were necessarily recorded at second hand. Fortunately, all Guianan primates are easily identified by obvious external characters (Emmons, 1990, 1997), so the likelihood of mistakes in the second­hand identifications we cite is remote.