Guatusas: the little animal you keep seeing on Roatan

Last checked October 28, 2026.

The guatusa is the Roatan agouti: a rabbit-sized, orange-brown rodent with long thin legs that you will see darting across a garden path or a quiet road at dawn and dusk. It is shy and harmless, and the IUCN lists it as Endangered. For more than a century it was counted as a species found only on Roatan. In 2026 a new study reclassified it as a subspecies of the mainland Central American agouti: a smaller, distinct island lineage that lives nowhere else.

What is a guatusa?

An agouti. Guatusa is the Spanish name used in Honduras and much of Central America for these animals, which are distant cousins of guinea pigs and capybaras. On Roatan you will hear both names, and they mean the same thing.

The island's guatusas are roughly 44 centimeters from nose to rump, with a tail so short you will rarely notice it. They look like a guinea pig on stilts: an orange-brown coat flecked with black along the back, paler and more olive underneath, a white spot on the chin and a yellowish patch on the belly. They move in quick, stiff-legged bursts and freeze when they are unsure of you. Roatan's animals are noticeably smaller than the agoutis on the mainland, a classic case of what biologists call island dwarfism, and one of the reasons they were described as their own species.

Where will you see one?

There is no dependable viewing spot, but you can run into one almost anywhere with some cover if you are out early or late. Guatusas live in brushy scrub forest across the island, and some have moved into developed areas, living under hotel buildings and helping themselves to grain put out for chickens. Most, though, are now in the hilly interior, away from the coast where the building is.

The best chance is the first and last hour of daylight, in a quiet resort garden, a hillside lot with trees or on a forest trail. Walk slowly and stop when you see one. They are timid and bolt at the sight of people, so the photo usually goes to whoever stands still longest.

What do they eat?

Mostly fruit and seeds. A study of guatusas on Fantasy Island, off Roatan's south side, recorded them eating coconuts, hibiscus flowers, tropical almonds and the pods of Pentaclethra trees, along with rice, oranges and corn meant for domestic fowl. The animals there spent roughly a quarter of their time sitting, a fifth feeding and close to a third looking for food.

Like other agoutis, they bury seeds to eat later, a habit called scatter-hoarding. Agoutis do not find every seed they hide, and the forgotten ones can sprout, which is why agoutis are often described as gardeners of the forests they live in.

Is the Roatan agouti its own species?

Not under the newest classification. The British zoologist Oldfield Thomas described the Roatan agouti as a separate species, Dasyprocta ruatanica, in 1901, and for over a hundred years it was listed as one of the island's endemic animals, found nowhere else.

Then the evidence shifted. A 2022 DNA study in the journal Mammal Research found that the Roatan agouti falls within the Central American branch of the common agouti, Dasyprocta punctata, and concluded it was not a full species. In 2026 a study of skull measurements in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution reached the same answer, but described Roatan's animals as "a morphologically distinct insular lineage" and proposed keeping them as a subspecies, Dasyprocta punctata ruatanica. In July 2026 the Mammal Diversity Database, one of the main references for mammal names, merged the Roatan agouti into D. punctata. Not every database has caught up, so you will still see D. ruatanica listed as a species in places.

That does not make Roatan's guatusas ordinary. They are still an island lineage found only here, just ranked as a subspecies rather than a species. The IUCN's 2016 assessment, made under the old species name, lists the Roatan agouti as Endangered; the Central American agouti as a whole is not threatened, and the merger does not mean the island's animals are any safer. Agoutis have also been photographed by camera traps on Utila, but nobody has confirmed which population they belong to.

Why are guatusas in trouble?

Habitat and hunting, mostly. Much of Roatan's scrub forest has been cleared, largely for tourism and housing, and guatusas need cover. Agouti is also eaten on the island, and the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web notes that hunting still goes on, even though the animals occur in two protected areas. The 2026 study adds a third, quieter threat: interbreeding with mainland agoutis brought to the island, which could blur the Roatan lineage away. Its authors call the population highly vulnerable and recommend protecting habitat and controlling introduced animals.

How to be a good neighbor to them

Keep your distance and let them be. Do not feed them, even if one turns up at your door looking for scraps. Keep dogs under control, especially at dawn and dusk. Drive slowly on the island's smaller roads, where they cross. And if guatusa is offered to you as a local dish, say no. For the animals that truly are found nowhere else, read our guide to the animals found only on Roatan, and for the reef, Roatan's reef and wildlife.

Common questions about guatusas on Roatan

What is a guatusa in Roatan?

A guatusa is an agouti, a rabbit-sized rodent related to guinea pigs. Roatan's guatusas are orange-brown with black flecks on the back, a white chin spot and long, thin legs, and they are roughly 44 centimeters long. They are shy, feed mainly on fruit and seeds, and are most often seen at dawn and dusk in gardens, scrub and quiet roadsides across the island.

Is the Roatan agouti endemic?

Not as a species anymore, but as a lineage, yes. Described as its own species in 1901, the Roatan agouti was merged into the Central American agouti by the Mammal Diversity Database in July 2026, after a 2022 DNA study and a 2026 skull study. That 2026 study proposed keeping it as a subspecies found only on Roatan, smaller than mainland agoutis. The IUCN's 2016 assessment lists it as Endangered.

Are guatusas dangerous?

No. Guatusas are timid plant-eaters that run from people, and they are not known to be aggressive. Like any wild animal, one that is cornered or handled may bite, so do not try to touch or feed them. The real danger runs the other way: dogs, hunting and habitat loss are what threaten Roatan's guatusas.

Checked October 28, 2026. Written by Roatan Lifestyle, an independent guide to Roatan, written by people who live here. Taxonomy changes, so tell us if something here is out of date.

Sources

• Mammal Diversity Database version 2.5 (released July 28, 2026): Dasyprocta ruatanica lumped into D. punctata
• Turcios-Casco et al. (2026), Journal of Mammalian Evolution: Quantitative morphology supports the synonymy of Dasyprocta ruatanica under D. punctata
• Ruiz-García et al. (2022), Mammal Research: Mitogenomic phylogenetics and population genetics of several taxa of agouties
• Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan: Dasyprocta ruatanica
• Ruatan Island agouti (with IUCN 2016 assessment and Lee et al. references)
• Photo: Roxana Ordoñez, Dasyprocta ruatanica, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
• iNaturalist: agouti camera trap records on Utila (2022)