• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 01 / 29 / 2011

---

radiobanes.cirt.cu /Saturday, 29 January 2011. Have you ever seen a jutia eating with a tablespoon? Chito is a six month old jutia of the conga species that was easily domesticated because it is the offspring of a mother in captivity. Joel Palacios Alcazar, its owner, shows it with much pride because it is the favorite pet of the family living at 714, Cardenas avenue, in the city of Banes, in the Cuban province of Holguin.

At first site you get impressed about its size, it looks like being larger than it really is. It’s got two strong upper incisive and two lower ones, but the best of all is that it is harmless.

As it is vegetarian it eats leaves, bark, fruits, roots and tubers, but the family in a way forced it change its feeding habits quite a bit, it now eats anything but drinks not much water.

Chito feels at home on the shoulder of Joel Palacios Alcazar. Something curious about Chito is having learnt to eat using a tablespoon, it grabs the spoon with its front leg and sits on its back legs, and this same operation is repeated when it eats cookies or any other thing it is given for food.

The jutia is one of the most distinctive animals in the Cuban fauna and one of the autochthonous mammals of the countryside, it is extremely shy and slippery so it is quite hard to hunt it because it is an expert of the wild, where there are hundreds of places for it to hide away from chasers and hunters that go for its highly coveted meat.

There are several species of jutias in Cuba, but the most well known ones are the conga, the carabali and the andaraz.

Chito eats cookies and other things people give it. In the area of Banes the conga jutia is the predominant one, mainly in the hills of Yaguajay, elevations located not far from Guardalavaca beach and in Boca de Sama.

Chito is a male jutia, a good walker and a very good climber; it is always going from here to there, all around the house, what indeed calls the attention of passers-by that stop to watch it boast of its skills.

Chito kisses Joel Palacios Alcazar for so much love.However, it has other likes like rocking on a swing placed in the house’s porch, and what to say of sitting on its owner’s limb, something that pleases it a lot, and to such a point that it then kisses the person in turn. (Translated by Radio Angulo).

Photo: Alberto Santiesteban

Source: www.radioangulo.cu/en/index.php/miscelany/vignettes/8870