Lowland Paca

Rainforest of the Americas: Lowland Paca. January 23, 2018.

What luck you had! I've visited about a dozen times at least and I've never seen more than a foot.

@Coelacanth18 It seems a foot is what most people see when visiting LA. When I first visited in 2016 I wasn't so lucky as to even see that. On this visit, however, I saw multiple animals between this enclosure and the indoor small mammal enclosures near the entrance.

~Thylo

Did you manage to spot the possibly mythical Panay cloudrunners?

Since they’ve been added to the indoor small mammal enclosures, I imagine they’re not hard to find, with the lack of hiding places. I saw 2 or 3, personally. On my 2015 visit I also got the “paca foot” treatment.

@Coelacanth18 the zoo sent all their cloud runners back to Jihlava in the Czech Republic at the latter’s request due to lack of breeding success. I only know one person who saw them before they moved.

@jayjds2 How long have there been paca in those indoor exhibits? I have only ever seen them signed in RotA, sharing an exhibit with howler monkeys, or maybe in one of the roundhouses.

And that's also what I had heard about the cloudrunners, but the last time I went there was still 3 signs for them

@Coelacanth18 at least since January, since that’s when Thylo visited. On my visit a few days ago they were not signed in RotA or any roundhouse, though in 2015 they were signed in both.

Regarding the cloudrunners, they were sent back in two waves so it’s possible you visited in between them. They are no longer signed.

The last time I visited was in late 2017 and the cloudrunners were still signed then. I had heard all of them had been sent away prior to that, but maybe the second wave was more recent? Or it just took a while for the signs to come down.

I think most cloud rats were sent back in 2016 and then the few stragglers in 2017. I have seen the species, though not at LA and not without help from a very kind keeper.

~Thylo

Where at @ThylacineAlive? Was it at London? Interesting (but not fun) fact: their last two individuals apparently died this month.