Mustela africana Desmarest, 1818

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-

Mustela africana Desmarest, 1818

Figure 15C

VOUCHER MATERIAL: None.

OTHER RECORDS: This report (Matses observations).

IDENTIFICATION: No other Amazonian mammal resembles this species, which we judge to be present in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve on the basis of unambiguous Matses observations. The local form is Mustela africana stolzmanni Taczanowski, 1881 , which was described from a specimen collected at Yurimaguas, a lowland site about 200 km west of our region. Technical descriptions and measurements of the holotype and other referred material were provided by Hall (1951).

ETHNOBIOLOGY: Only three Matses men whom we interviewed have seen an Amazon weasel, and each had encountered them only once. As such, the name we give here, mayanën opampi (“demon’s little dog”) is far from established. However, it has some currency among people who had heard of it from those who have seen it. One informant called it bosenëmpi, the term for the Neotropical otter with the diminutive suffix -mpi (i.e., “little otter”).

The Amazon weasel is of no economic or cultural importance to the Matses. Since most Matses are not familiar with the species, they have no established beliefs about it.

NATURAL HISTORY: Amazon weasels are small, the size of an acouchy. They are brown, the color of an otter. They have an extremely strong and foul smell. They run very fast. One informant said that his hunting dogs were not able to catch one. Another informant said he found three together in a burrow at the base of a tree.

REMARKS: This exceptionally rare (or elusive) species is seldom encountered, even by field researchers with many years of Amazonian experience, so it is not surprising that only a few Matses have seen one.

Figures

FIG. 15. Adult skulls of five sympatric mustelid species illustrating taxonomic differences in size and shape: Galictis vittata (A, MUSM 15157), Eira barbara (B, MUSM 13149), Mustela africana (C, AMNH 61813), Pteronura brasiliensis (D, AMNH 74431), Lontra longicaudis (E, AMNH 98589). All illustrated specimens are from eastern Peru, but only MUSM 13149 and MUSM 15157 are from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve.