 Almiqui found in Cuba
A living example of an insectivore native to Cuba - but
believed for years to extinct - has been found in the island's eastern
mountains, a Cuban news agency reported.The last reported sightings of the creatures were in 1972 in the
eastern province of Guantanamo, and 25 years later in 1999 in the
eastern province of Holguin.The discovery of the male insect-eating mammal known as an almiqui
(pronounced ahl-mee-KEE) raises hopes "that it will not wind up
in the catalog of the irretrievable animals disappearing from the face
of the Earth," Prensa Latina said in reporting the discovery.
www.cubanet.org
The almiqui (Solenodon
cubanus) is an insectivore
native to Cuba
believed extinct
until rediscovered in 2003
in the eastern mountains.
70-80 centimeters (28-32 inches) long from nose to tail, the almiqui
resembles a large brown rat
with an extremely elongated snout and a long, naked, scaly tail.
The Cuban almiqui was mistakenly believed extinct since the last
sighting in 1999
mainly because it is a nocturnal
burrower, living underground. It is therefore very rarely seen. Since
its discovery in 1861
by the German
naturalist
Wilham
Peters, only 36 had ever been caught. The almiqui that was found
in 2003, named Alejandrito, brought the number to 37. He weighed 24
ounces and was healthy. He was released back into the wild after two
days of scientific study were completed. The almiqui belongs to the
familySolenodontidae
along with a similar species, the agouta
(Solenodon paradoxus), which was once also native to Haiti.
Its population there is believed to have been destroyed by themongoose
imported to exterminate snakes.
With small eyes, and dark brown to black hair, it is sometimes
compared to the shrew
although it most closely resembles the family Tenrecidae,
of Madagascar.
While it is not yet extinct, it is still an endangered
species, in part because it only breeds a single litter of one to
three in a year, and like the agouti, because of predation by species
that were introduced by humans.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almiqui
L' Almiqui de Haiti
Almiqui est le nom donné à Haiti à une bête qu'on pourrait prendre
d'abord pour un gros rat, mais qui en fait est un insectivore à la
queue écailleuse et velue tout à la fois, aux pattes armées de
longues griffes recourbées et qui, lorsqu'il peigne sa fourrure
grossière, s'assied sur ses pattes postérieures, sa queue repliée,
absolument comme le fait le kangourou.
Sa principale activité semble être manger; et manger de tout:
insectes, reptiles, vers de terre, végétaux et no-tamment fruits de
toutes sortes.
De la taille d'un lapin de garenne, cette bête qui se cache le jour
et passe son temps, la nuit venue, à fouiner un peu partout dans le
sol avec sa sorte de trompe, cette bête n'est pas des plus
sympathiques; elle a même tout l'air d'être un mauvais coucheur. On
dit à tout moment qu'elle entre en des colères folles qui la font
pousser des cris inarticulés et aussi mordre tout ce qui se trouve à
sa portée.
A l'heure actuelle, il n'en reste plus aucun à Haiti, car les
mangoustes, importées pour mener la chasse aux ser-pents, ont trouvé
l'almiqui fort à leur goût.
A Cuba, dans les montagnes orientales vit encore un cousin de l'almiqui,
différent de lui par la couleur et la conformation du pelage
http://membres.lycos.fr/stjosephwaterloo/fichiers/totems/totems%20A/almiqui.htm
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