Mountain paca
Cuniculus taczanowskii (Stolzmann, 1865)
The mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii) is a species in the family Cuniculidae, order Rodentia. Recorded adults weigh about 9 kg and live up to 16.6 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Near Threatened.
Quick facts about the mountain paca
- Weight
- 9 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 16.6 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 18.9 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 115 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 11.2 months – 12 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1.5src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Near Threatened (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the mountain paca live?
Not recorded
What is the mountain paca?
The mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii) is a small burrow-dwelling rodent whose habitats are high altitude South American forests. Pacas are nocturnal, sedentary, and solitary animals with territorial tendencies. It eats mostly fruits and seeds. The mountain paca primarily inhabits higher Andean montane forest regions in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
This paca has coarse fur without underfur, dark brown to black on the upper body and white or yellowish on the underbelly. It usually has three to five rows of white spots along its sides, against a dark grey background. It has thick strong legs, with four digits in the forefeet and five in the hind feet (the first and fifth are reduced); the nails function as hooves. The tail is short and hairless. The zygomatic arch is expanded laterally and dorsally and is used as a resonating chamber—a unique feature among mammals.
The mountain paca is hunted for its meat, which is high in calories and is considered a delicacy particularly in rural communities. Due to its quick growth, it may be bred in captivity for commercial use. However, it has a low reproductive capacity and its numbers have been significantly reduced in recent years due to hunting and habitat destruction. It is fairly abundant in protected areas.
From the Wikipedia article “Mountain paca” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mountain_paca&oldid=1349964291), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the mountain paca endangered?
The mountain paca is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Near Threatened species.
How is the mountain paca classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderRodentia
- familyCuniculidae
- genusCuniculus
- SpeciesCuniculus taczanowskii (Stolzmann, 1865)
Synonyms Agouti taczanowskii, Coelogenys taczanowskii, Cuniculus sierrae
Other names and names in other languages (20)
- Black pacaEnglish
- باكا سوداءArabic
- باكا الجبالArabic
- Paka ar menezioùBreton
- paka horskáCzech
- BergpakaGerman
- TinajoSpanish
- GuardatinajaSpanish
- Paca de montañaSpanish
- SahacuySpanish
- vuoripakaFinnish
- Paca di montagnaItalian
- ヤマパカJapanese
- FjellpakaNorwegian Bokmål
- BergpacaDutch
- paka górskaPolish
- Paca-da-montanhaPortuguese
- Горная пакаRussian
- Планинска пакаSerbian
- 高地無尾刺豚鼠Chinese
Relatives of the mountain paca
Other species in the same genus Cuniculus.
Lowland paca
Cuniculus paca
CompareMountain paca vs Lowland pacaMountain paca vs Agouti silvagarciae
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the mountain paca?
An adult mountain paca weighs 9 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Is the mountain paca endangered?
The mountain paca is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is close to qualifying as threatened.
How long does the mountain paca live?
The mountain paca has a recorded lifespan of 16.6 years.
How long is the mountain paca pregnant?
The recorded gestation period is 115 days.
What kind of animal is the mountain paca?
The mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii) belongs to the family Cuniculidae in the order Rodentia.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/mountain-paca
“Mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/mountain-paca.
@misc{mountain_paca_2026,
title = {Mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/mountain-paca},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}