Records of melanistic Tamanduatetradactyla (Pilosa, Myrmecophagidae) from Ecuador
2019
Ríos-Alvear, Gorki | Cadena-Ortiz, Héctor
In Ecuador, the presence of melanistic individuals of Southern Tamandua Tamanduatetradactyla Linnaeus (1758) has been recognized but there has not been a formal report written about it. Neither has there been one on the observations or the collected specimens in museums. We present six records of melanism in Tamanduatetradactyla from southern Ecuador and discuss other records in wildlife and from museum collections. Half of the records are recent photographic ones (2018), and the other three are museum specimens collected between 2009 and 2016. Our report of melanistic individuals suggests that dark coloration varieties are frequent mutations in the region. This report can be useful to promote conservation initiatives, based on the Southern Tamandua as a potential flagship-species.
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