New record of leucistic Eira barbara Lineu, 1758 (Mammalia: Carnivora) for southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Records of leucism in tayras (Eira barbara) are considered common in the literature, but occur sporadically. Were found 18 records in Brazil and we present the most recent record in Southeastern Brazil, the last one occurred more than six years ago (2015). We demonstrate that records of leucistic tayras are punctual for the north of the Amazon and the south-central of the Atlantic Forest; and also found that the number of records has increased in the last 10 years. Given this scenario, we suggest further research on the species to better understand the conservation status of the species and reasons for the increase in the number of ocurrences of leucistic tayras.

Keywords

• Camera trap
• conservation
• mustelid
• natural history
• white coat