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tayra

[ tahy-ruh ]

noun

  1. a small animal, Eira barbara, of the weasel family, ranging from Mexico to tropical South America.


tayra

/ ˈtaɪrə /

noun

  1. a large arboreal musteline mammal, Eira barbara, of Central and South America, having a dark brown body and paler head
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of tayra1

1850–55; < Portuguese, Spanish, taira < Tupi
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Word History and Origins

Origin of tayra1

C19: from Tupi taira
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Example Sentences

They’ve recorded a clever form of weasel called a tayra and lots of crazy rodents like the agouti and the mountain paca.

He was studying poison dart frogs at La Selva Biological Station in northern Costa Rica, when he noticed a tayra—essentially a giant weasel with a bushy tail—approach a tree.

The South American grison and tayra represent the genus Galictis, in which the dentition is i.

Among them was a tayra weasel, whitish above and black below, as big and blood-thirsty as a fisher-martin; and a tiny opossum no bigger than a mouse.

The tayra, a relative of the weasel native to Central and South America, appears to do much the same thing, picking unripe plantains and hiding them until they ripen, according to a new study.

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