The San felipe hutia is a very poorly known species that was first discovered in 1970 on a single tiny island, Cayo Juan Garcia, in the Cayos de San Felipe off southwestern Cuba. A large series of specimens was collected by Cuban researchers from the island during the 1970s, and the species has not been seen since 1978, when 43 individuals were taken as museum specimens. Black rats have been accidentally introduced to the Cayos de San Felipe and are extremely abundant today, posing a major threat to small native hutias. Intensive hunting of hutias and habitat destruction may also have occurred in the recent past. Surveys of the Cayos de San Felipe in the 1980s and 2003 found no surviving hutias, and this species may already be extinct.
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| - The San felipe hutia is a very poorly known species that was first discovered in 1970 on a single tiny island, Cayo Juan Garcia, in the Cayos de San Felipe off southwestern Cuba. A large series of specimens was collected by Cuban researchers from the island during the 1970s, and the species has not been seen since 1978, when 43 individuals were taken as museum specimens. Black rats have been accidentally introduced to the Cayos de San Felipe and are extremely abundant today, posing a major threat to small native hutias. Intensive hunting of hutias and habitat destruction may also have occurred in the recent past. Surveys of the Cayos de San Felipe in the 1980s and 2003 found no surviving hutias, and this species may already be extinct.
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| - The San felipe hutia is a very poorly known species that was first discovered in 1970 on a single tiny island, Cayo Juan Garcia, in the Cayos de San Felipe off southwestern Cuba. A large series of specimens was collected by Cuban researchers from the island during the 1970s, and the species has not been seen since 1978, when 43 individuals were taken as museum specimens. Black rats have been accidentally introduced to the Cayos de San Felipe and are extremely abundant today, posing a major threat to small native hutias. Intensive hunting of hutias and habitat destruction may also have occurred in the recent past. Surveys of the Cayos de San Felipe in the 1980s and 2003 found no surviving hutias, and this species may already be extinct.
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