Canidae, Fischer, 1817

Voss, Robert S. & Fleck, David W., 2017, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 2: Xenarthra, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, And Sirenia, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2017 (417), pp. 1-1 : 1-

Canidae

Two species of wild canids are known to occur in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve, the small-eared dog ( Atelocynus microtis ) and the bush dog ( Speothos venaticus ); both are easily recognized by external characters ( Hershkovitz, 1957, 1961; Emmons, 1997). Although canid voucher material is lacking from our region, we provide cranial illustrations and measurements of extralimital specimens to help identify skeletal material that might eventually be found there (figs. 12, 13; tables 9 , 10).

The Matses have raised domestic dogs ( Canis lupus familiaris ) for many generations, primarily for hunting, but a Matses myth implies that they did not always have dogs. The principal name for the domestic dog is opa (unanalyzable, but cognate with names for dogs in several other Panoan languages). There is also one archaic synonym for the domestic dog, mëntsis, which also means “fingernail” or “claw of forefoot.” The term opa is also a general term that includes wild canids.