Belongs within: Mustelinae.
The genus Galictis contains the grisons, mustelids found in Central and South America. Grisons have a distinctive colour pattern, with black face and underparts separated from the grey or brown back by a white stripe across the forehead. The little grison Galictis cuja is smaller and lighter in coloration (yellowish-grey or brown rather than smoky grey) than the grison G. vittata, and found at higher altitudes.
The grisons
Published 22 August 2020
Spend a bit of time following discussions of nature documentaries and other popular representations of biodiversity, and one topic you’re likely to see come up is the biases that tend to exist in what gets represented. Images from eastern and southern Africa predominate while the west and north of that continent get overlooked. Europe and North America receive much more attention than the temperate regions of Asia. Another region whose diversity tends to go underrepresented is South America. The casual observer might think this continent is all monkeys and jaguars but South America is also home to notable radiations of dogs, deer, rodents, and other animals that many people would associate more with other parts of the world. Among these overlooked elements of the South American fauna are the local species of mustelid, including the grisons of the genus Galictis.
Grisons are somewhat ferret- or skunk-like animals found across almost the entirety of South America, and north into southern Mexico. They are greyish in colour dorsally (the name ‘grison’ itself means ‘grey’) with a black face and underparts. A pale stripe separates the upper and lower parts across the top of the face and continues diagonally back to the shoulders. They feed on small vertebrates and tend to be solitary hunters though they may sometimes form small family groups. They are primarily terrestrial and diurnal in habits. They have a reputation for ferocity; residents of Chile apparently have a history of using comparisons to grisons to describe unchecked rage (Yensen & Tarifa 2003b), in a similar manner to references to wolverines and honey badgers in other parts of the world. Contrasting colour patterns like those of the grisons are associated in other musteloids (such as skunks) with the production of offensive odours for defence, and grisons also produce strong-smelling secretions from their anal glands. Though some sources have claimed the odour produced by the lesser grison to be worse than a skunk’s, it appears that these reports are exaggerated (Yensen & Tarifa 2003b).
Most authors have recognised two species of grison, the greater grison Galictis vittata and the lesser grison G. cuja*, as corroborated by a recent taxonomic study of the genus by Bornholdt et al. (2013). As their names indicate, the greater grison is generally larger and more robust than the lesser, being about 60 to 76 cm in total length versus 44 to 68 cm for the lesser grison (Yensen & Tarifa 2003b). The tail is also proportionately shorter in the greater grison (30% of the total length for the greater, 40% for the shorter). Fur is relatively longer and denser in the lesser grison, giving it more of a fluffy look. Whereas the dorsal fur is always a plain grey in the greater grison, it may often have a yellowish tinge in the lesser (not always, though). The two are generally distinct in range and habitat, as well. The greater grison is an animal of tropical forests and inhabits the northern part of the genus’ range in Central America and northern and western South America. The lesser grison inhabits drier habitats, in arid or temperate regions, and so occupies the southern and eastern parts of the continent. The ranges of the species are known to overlap in Bolivian and Paraguay where their respective biomes approach each other.
*Some sources have listed a third species G. allamandi but this seems have been something of a ‘ghost’ taxon born from confusion whether the name ‘G. vittata‘ applied to the greater or lesser species.
The genus Galictis arrived in South America as part of the Great American Biotic Interchange, about three million years ago. The general consensus is that it is derived from the genus Trigonictis of the North American Pliocene. Indeed, it has even been suggested that the two North American species of Trigonictis might represent independent ancestors of Galictis, with the larger T. macrodon giving rise to the greater grison and the smaller T. cookii birthing the lesser grison (Yensen & Tarifa 2003a). This certainly would seem overly complicated, though, and molecular data are more in line with a more recent separation of the species.
Systematics of Galictis
<==Galictis Bell 1826 [incl. Grisonia Gray 1865; Grisoninae]C57
|--G. (Galictis) [incl. Grison Allen 1902]C57
| `--*G. (G.) vittata (Schreber 1776)C57 (see below for synonymy)
| |--G. v. vittata [incl. Mustela gujanensis Bechstein 1800]C57
| |--G. v. andica Thomas 1903 [=Grison andinus]C57
| |--G. v. brasiliensis (Thunberg 1820) (see below for synonymy)C57
| `--G. v. canaster Nelson 1901C57 [=Ga. allamandi canasterG69, Grison canasterC57]
`--G. (Grisonella Thomas 1912)C57
`--G. (G.) cuja (Molina 1782) [=Mustela cuja, Grison (G.) cuja, Viverra cuja]C57
|--G. c. cuja (see below for synonymy)C57
|--G. (*G.) c. furax (Thomas 1907) (see below for synonymy)C57
|--G. c. huronax (Thomas 1921) [=Grisonella huronax]C57
`--G. c. luteola (Thomas 1907) [=Grison furax luteolus]C57
*Galictis (Galictis) vittata (Schreber 1776)C57 [=Viverra vittataC57, Grison vittatusC57, Grisonia vittataC57, Gulo vittatusC57, Lutra vittataC57, Mustela vittataC57, Galictis allamandi Bell 1837BH13, Grisson allamandiC57]
Galictis (Galictis) vittata brasiliensis (Thunberg 1820) [=Ursus brasiliensis, Grison vittatus brasiliensis; incl. Galictis crassidens Nehring 1885, Ga. intermedia Lund 1845]C57
Galictis (Grisonella) cuja cuja (Molina 1782) [incl. Ga. vittata var. chilensis Ihering 1886, Grison furax melinus Thomas 1912, Ga. furax melina, Grisonella melina, Mustela quiqui Molina 1782, Galictis quiqui, Viverra quiqui, Grisonella ratellina Thomas 1921, Grisonella shiptoni Thomas 1926]C57
Galictis (*Grisonella) cuja furax (Thomas 1907) [=Grison furax; incl. Mustela albifrons Larrañaga 1923, M. brasiliensis D’Orbigny 1838 non Gmelin 1788]C57
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[BH13] Bornholdt, R., K. Helgen, K.-P. Koepfli, L. Oliveira, M. Lucherini & E. Eizirik. 2013. Taxonomic revision of the genus Galictis (Carnivora: Mustelidae): species delimitation, morphological diagnosis, and refined mapping of geographical distribution. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 167: 449–472.
[C57] Cabrera, A. 1957. Catalogo de los mamiferos de America del Sur. I (Metatheria—Unguiculata—Carnivora). Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” e Instituto Nacional de Investigacion de Las Ciencias Naturales, Ciencias Zoológicas 4 (1): 1–307.
[G69] Goodwin, G. G. 1969. Mammals from the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, in the American Museum of Natural History. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 141 (1): 1–269, 40 pls.
Yensen, E., & T. Tarifa. 2003a. Galictis vittata. Mammalian Species 727: 1–8.
Yensen, E., & T. Tarifa. 2003b. Galictis cuja. Mammalian Species 728: 1–8.