Bassaricyon alleni Thomas, 1880

Voss, Robert S. & Fleck, David W., 2017, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 2: Xenarthra, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, And Sirenia, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2017 (417), pp. 1-1 : 1-

Bassaricyon alleni Thomas, 1880

Figure 16B

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL = 2): Nuevo San Juan (AMNH 268247; MUSM 11174).

OTHER INTERFLUVIAL RECORDS: Anguila ( Escobedo-Torres, 2015).

IDENTIFICATION: Our two voucher specimens conform qualitatively to Helgen et al.’s (2013) diagnosis of Bassaricyon alleni , the only olingo species known to occur in Amazonia. Additionally, the external and craniodental measurements of our specimens ( table 14 ) fall within the range of morphometric variation in B. alleni tabulated in that study. No subspecies of B. alleni are currently recognized, and the trivial genetic distance between sequenced specimens from Guyana and Peru (ca. 1.3% at the cytochrome- b locus; Helgen et al., 2013) suggests that even widely separated Amazonian populations are not significantly differentiated.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: The Matses name for the olingo is şhëmën, a monomorphemic term that is common in other Panoan languages as a name for the olingo and/or the kinkajou. Only a small number of Matses are aware that olingos and kinkajous are different animals. Those who recognize them as distinct note the nonprehensile, ringed tail of the olingo and its slightly different vocalization. Those who are not aware that these are two species consider the name for the kinkajou, kuichikkekid, to be a synonym of şhëmën.

The olingo is of no economic importance to the Matses.

Contagion by an olingo spirit causes a very high fever in children (like the illness caused by a kinkajou spirit).

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: The olingo is like a kinkajou, but has a nonprehensile and ringed tail and a smaller head. Its call is very similar to but softer than that of the kinkajou. The olingo’s call is heard less frequently than the kinkajou’s, and is seldom heard in secondary forest. (The remaining natural history information that Matses interviewees provided for the olingo is essentially the same as that provided for the kinkajou.)

REMARKS: Both of our specimens were shot at night in trees (at estimated heights of 15 and 35 m above the ground) in primary upland forest.

Figures

FIG. 16. Adult skulls of four sympatric procyonid species, illustrating taxonomic differences in size and shape: Potos flavus (A, AMNH 268249), Bassaricyon alleni (B, AMNH 98709), Nasua nasua (C, AMNH 76642), Procyon cancrivorus (D, AMNH 94247). All illustrated crania are from western South America, but only AMNH 268249 is from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve.