''Cavia anolaimae'' is a

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. It is found in Colombia near

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...

. It is believed to be a

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

offshoot of the

domestic guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus ''Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the an ...

, ''Cavia porcellus'', and is often treated as a synonym of ''C. porcellus'', but Zúñiga et al. (2002), based on morphologic characters, recognized them as different species. According to the molecular analysis of Dunnum and Salazar (2010) ''C. anolaimae'' is a subspecies of '' Cavia aperea'', ''C. aperea anolaimae'', and a possible synonymous of '' C. a. guianae'' .

References

* Woods C. A. and C. W. Kilpatrick. 2005. Hystricognathi pp. 1538-1600 ''in'' D. E. Wilson and M. A. Reeder, eds. ''Mammal Species of the World'', 3rd edition, p. 1553. * * Zúñiga, H.; Pinto-Nolla, M.; Hernández-Camacho, J.I. & Torres-Martínez, O.M. 2002. "Revisión taxonómica de las especies del género Cavia (Rodentia: Caviidae) en Colombia"; ''Acta Zoológica Mexicana'' 87: 111–123. * Donnum, Jonathan L. & Salazar-Bravo, Jorge. 2010. "Molecular systematics, taxonomy and biogeography of the genus Cavia (Rodentia: Caviidae)"; ''Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research'' 48(4): 376–388. Guinea pigs Endemic fauna of Colombia Rodents of South America Mammals of Colombia Mammals described in 1916 {{rodent-stub