Report of coloration anomalies in mammals from Panama

By

Fuentes, Rogemif
Castillo, Melquiades
Moreno, Ricardo
Quintero-Arrieta, Helio
Pérez, Edgar
Araúz, Jacobo
Añino, Yostin
Murcia-Moreno, Daniel
Valdés, Roderick
Bonilla, Braulio
Gálvez, Dumas

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024-7-24

Original Publication

Neotropical Biology and Conservation

Volume

19

Series / Issue

Issue: 3

Pages

333--345

Subjects

Albinism , erythrism , leucism , mammalia , Melanin

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Brazil Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neotropical.19.e125890

 

Abstract

Coloration anomalies are widespread across the animal kingdom; however, they pass underreported for some taxa or are extremely rare, like in the case of mammals. Three of those anomalies are albinism, leucism, and erythrism, each of which generates atypical colorations in white with white spots and reddish-brown, respectively. Here, we report five cases of coloration anomalies in mammals from Panama: 1) albinism in the Derby’s woolly opossum (Caluromys derbianus Waterhouse, 1841), the lowland Paca (Cuniculus paca Linnaeus, 1766), and the variegated squirrel (Echinosciuris variegatoides Ogilby, 1839). 2) leucism in the Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata J. E. Gray, 1842), and 3) erythrism in the northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana Saussure, 1860). We discuss some implications of these observations and the importance of gathering this type of data for developing more complex studies in the future.