The James Bond Hutia was discovered by a team of scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Realizing the uniqueness of this hutia species, they put their heads together to come up with an apt name for the rodent.
First, let’s explain more about the real-life James Bond. He was a real person and an ornithologist based in the Caribbean. The real Bond actually studied Hutias, along with their distribution in the Caribbean region. Ian Fleming liked the name Bond, James Bond and used it for his character in the book. Ian Fleming’s fictional character, James Bond is well known for being somewhat of a “love rat,” but this really doesn’t describe the Hutia.
Dr. Samuel Turvey, lead author and Senior Research Fellow at ZSL, said, “The discovery of new mammals is always incredibly exciting, as there are now so few unexplored places left in the world.” He went on to explain, “We named the hutia after James Bond because he originally identified a barrier in southern Haiti, now called Bond’s Line, which marks the boundary between the distribution of this hutia and its closest relatives, and which, we now know, used to be a shallow sea channel running across the island.”
So, the ZSL team named the rodent-like creature Plagiodontia aedium bondi. This particular creature was called the Hispaniolan Hutia and is one of the three members of the subfamily Plagiodontinae, of which it is the only one left. At one time, there were over 30 different species of hutia, but due to being used as a food source and later deforestation, most of the hutia are now extinct.
Most hutias have a head and body length between 8.3 to 18 inches and weigh less than 4.4 pounds. The Desmarest’s hutia is found around the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. There is now an overpopulation of these hutias because of a lack of natural predators and an abundance of food. The Desmarest’s hutia can get up to 24 inches in length and weigh up to 18 pounds. At Guantanamo Bay, they are called “banana rats,” not because of their preference for bananas but because their feces is shaped like little bananas.
“I am glad we were able to describe James Bond’s hutia before it’s too late, as it is highly threatened by deforestation, even in protected areas,” says Turvey. “Species found on isolated islands, such as those in the Caribbean, have been shaken and stirred by human activity and are very vulnerable to extinction. ‘However, we hope that conservation efforts will mean that hutias are forever.”
The ZSL team’s findings were reported in the Journal Zootaxia May 14, 2015, under the title: A new subspecies of hutia (Plagiodontia, Capromyidae, Rodentia) from southern Hispaniola.
