Montane guinea pig Montane guinea pig The montane guinea pig, "Cavia tschudii", a type of rodent, is a guinea pig species from the Andes in South America. The montane guinea pig is the likely ancestor of "Cavia porcellus", the cavy or domestic guinea pig. Peruvian wild guinea pigs were first described by E. T. Bennett in 1835, who termed them "Cavia cutleri". Johann Jakob von Tschudi, in an 1845 publication, used the term "Cavia cutleri" to refer to what are now considered two separate entities - the first, Bennett's "Cavia cutleri", which was later (by Oldfield Thomas in 1917) identified as probably a
Rock cavy Rock cavy The rock cavy or mocó ("Kerodon rupestris") is a cavy species endemic to eastern Brazil, from eastern Piauí state to Minas Gerais state. It has been introduced to the oceanic island of Fernando de Noronha. The rock cavy is a fairly large rodent weighing up to , and like other species of cavies the tail is vestigial or absent. The dorsum is grey and the venter light brown. They are hystricomorphs, which means they have porcupine-like jaw muscles. The rock cavy belongs to the order Rodentia and the family Caviidae. This group has two subfamilies: Dolichotinae and Caviinae.