Roatan agouti (guatusa)
Dasyprocta punctata ruatanica
Where to see it
Scrub, forest edge and resort gardens, mostly at dawn and dusk. Sit still near fallen fruit and one will usually come to you.
When
All year, dawn and dusk
Status
Endangered
The guatusa: a rabbit-sized, orange-brown rodent with a white chin, often seen at dawn and dusk trotting across a lawn or sitting up to eat a fallen fruit. It is the island's one native land mammal that most visitors actually see.
It was long treated as a species of its own, the Roatan agouti, and is still listed by the IUCN as Endangered. In 2026 scientists reclassified it as a subspecies of the Central American agouti, a smaller island lineage found only on Roatan. Whatever the taxonomy, it is hunted, run over and chased by dogs, and its numbers are small. Our guatusa guide has the full story, including why the reclassification matters for its protection.