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SPECIES Cavia porcellus

Author:Linnaeus, 1758.
Citation:Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1: 59.
Common Name:Domesticated Guinea Pig
Type Locality:Brazil, Pernambuco (questionable).
Distribution:Domesticated worldwide; possibly feral in N South America.
Status:IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).
Comments:Husson (1978:451) reserved the use of porcellus to denote domesticated guinea pigs, which are probably derived from tschudii (Corbet and Hill, 1991:201), but also see Hückinghaus (1961:96), who regarded porcellus as a synonym of aperea. This species may be a domesticated animal with no established wild populations, K. F. Koopman (pers. comm.) believed that N South American populations may be feral domesticated guinea pigs; but see comments under aperea. Cavia aperea can be differentiated from porcellus by the presence of the processus cupularis (da Silva Neto, 2000). Karyotype has 2n=64 and FN=128 (George and Weir, 1974).
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Offspring:

Synonyms:

    anolaimae J. A. Allen, 1916
    cobaya Pallas, 1766
    cutleri Bennett, 1836
    leucopyga Cabanis, 1848
    longipilis Fitzinger, 1879

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