 the lowland paca (cuniculus paca), also known as the spotted paca, is a large rodent found in tropical and sub-tropical america, from east-central mexico to northern argentina. it is called paca in most of its range, but tepezcuintle in most of mexico and central america, pisquinte in northern costa rica, jaleb in the yucatÃ¡n peninsula, conejo pintado in panamÃ¡, guanta in ecuador, majÃ¡s or picuro in peru, jochi pintado in bolivia, and borugahttp://books.google.com/books?id=9r9e_hbdaf0c&pg=pa7&lpg=pa7&dq=paca+boruga&source=bl&ots=ijkf7_zrwz&sig=85n_umlvkn-zmnktvxgjiseuq_o&hl=en&ei=lhgltogcoo6ssaoq6tn-dg&sa=x&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0cbiq6aewaa#v=onepage&q=paca%20boruga&f=false or guardatinaja in colombia. it is also known as the gibnut in belize, where it is prized as a game animal, labba in guyana, lapa in venezuela, and lappe on the island of trinidad. there is much confusion in the nomenclature of this and related species; see agouti. in particular, the popular term agouti or common agouti normally refers to species of the distinct dasyprocta genus (such as the central american agouti, dasyprocta punctata). sometimes the word agouti is also used for a polyphyletic grouping uniting the families cuniculidae and dasyproctidae, which, besides the pacas and common agoutis, includes also the acouchis (myoprocta). cuniculus is the appropriate genus name instead of agouti based on a 1998 ruling of the international commission on zoological nomenclature as the lowland paca's genus. == etymology == the word "paca" comes from a word in the tupi language that designates the animal but also means "awaken, alert."http://www.fflch.usp.br/dlcv/tupi/vocabulario.htmferreira, a. b. h. novo dicionÃ¡rio da lÃ­ngua portuguesa. segunda ediÃ§Ã£o. rio de janeiro: nova fronteira, 1986. p. 1 243 "tepezcuintle" is of nahuatl origin, meaning mountain dog: tepetl = mountain; itzquintli = dog. == description == thumb|skeleton the lowland paca has coarse fur without underfur, dark brown to black 
Domesticated_animals Hystricognath_rodents IUCN_Red_List_least_concern_species Mammals_of_Central_America Mammals_of_Costa_Rica Mammals_of_French_Guiana Mammals_of_Guatemala Mammals_of_Mexico Mammals_of_Trinidad_and_Tobago