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tepescuintle

English translation: paca, lowland cavy, spotted cavy

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:tepescuintle
English translation:paca, lowland cavy, spotted cavy
Entered by: John Speese

22:56 Dec 31, 2008
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Science - Zoology / forest wildlife
Spanish term or phrase: tepescuintle
I understand that this is a kind of rabbit-sized "jungle rat" (technically, rodent). But do you leave the word untranslated, or is there some specialized English equivalent? Specifically, I'm talking about the terrain around Chiapas, Mexico.
offset
United States
Local time: 03:57
paca, lowland cavy, spotted cavy
Explanation:
Googling this animal, I came up with an image of an animal that I recognized as a cavy, specifically the spotted cavy or paca, Cuniculus (Coelogyne) paca, a relative of the agouti and the guinea pig. Check out the wikipedia site I gave you, click on the lowland paca link, and you'll see this animal named as spotted cavy, lowland cavy, paca, and tepescuintle.
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John Speese
United States
Local time: 06:57
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Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +3paca, lowland cavy, spotted cavy
John Speese
5 +2paca (Caninculus paca) OR: sooty paca, agouti paca, spotted cavy, gibnut
Muriel Vasconcellos


  

Answers


49 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +3
paca, lowland cavy, spotted cavy


Explanation:
Googling this animal, I came up with an image of an animal that I recognized as a cavy, specifically the spotted cavy or paca, Cuniculus (Coelogyne) paca, a relative of the agouti and the guinea pig. Check out the wikipedia site I gave you, click on the lowland paca link, and you'll see this animal named as spotted cavy, lowland cavy, paca, and tepescuintle.


    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paca
John Speese
United States
Local time: 06:57
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Patricia Rosas
0 min
agree  Mónica Algazi
2 hrs
agree  carlie602: merci
1 day 22 hrs
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +2
paca (Caninculus paca) OR: sooty paca, agouti paca, spotted cavy, gibnut


Explanation:
Tepesquintle is one of the names for Caninculus paca. Always, with local names, you should include the Latin name. The most common name in English is "paca." The problem is that "tepesquintl" is also an Aztec name for the Mexican hairless dog, which is a canine, not a rodent. So I suggest that you avoid "tepesquintle" if your text is about the rodent.

paca (redirected from tepesquintle)
a large, plump rodent, brown in color, with three to five lines of white spots down the sides of the body. The paca, about 60 cm/2 ft long, is native to Central and South America. Also called sooty paca, spotted cavy, Cuniculus paca (formerly Coelogenys spp.)
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Tepesquintle

There is a good article about them at:

The larger of these rodents — reaching up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds) — is the paca (Spanish = tepesquintle or tuza; Belizean English = gibnut...
books.google.com/books?isbn=0292713185...











--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day8 hrs (2009-01-02 07:10:40 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

John posted his answer while I was working on mine - I didn't copy him.

Muriel Vasconcellos
United States
Local time: 03:57
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 32

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Marjory Hord: esp. the Latin name
1 day 5 hrs
  -> Thanks, Marjory!
agree  TexMex: Calling it tepescuintle is not an issue because the Aztec dog is called Xoyoscuintle or Escuincle in some areas.
1085 days
  -> Thanks!
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