As members of the "Save the Paca Foundation," Carlos and I visited a paca (Cuniculus paca) breeding center during our visit to La Fortuna. We were very fortunate to even be allowed inside the enclosure with the pacas (because we are biologists) and to interact with them.
Pacas are very wary by nature because they are delicious and basically eaten by everything (snakes, jaguars, humans). The pacas here were pretty cautious, but could be petted briefly and fed bananas. They have VERY sharp teeth so we were careful when feeding them. Pacas also have large, rough bony structures on their cheeks that amplify sound and make them sound very intimidating when they growl (like a bear or a lion!).
We had a great time playing with the pacas -- the baby was especially curious! I even took some videos:
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