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South American weasels (subgenus Grammogale) are New World weasels endemic to South America. There are two extant species — the Amazon weasel (Neogale africana) and the Colombian weasel (Neogale felipei).

Taxonomy

The Amazon weasel was the first species of the two which was described, as it was described by Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest in 1818. Spanish naturalist Ángel Cabrera described Grammogale in 1940 as a monotypic subgenus, though this would change in 1978 when the Colombian weasel was first described. Initially in the genus Mustela, South American weasels were reclassified into the genus Neogale with their closest relatives (the American mink, the long-tailed weasel and the sea mink) in 2021.

References

1. Cabrera, Ángel; Yepes, José (1940). Mamíferos sud-americanos [South American mammals] (in Spanish). Compañía argentina de editores.
2. Izor, Robert J.; de la Torre, Luis (1978). "A new species of weasel (Mustela) from the highlands of Colombia, with comments on the evolution and distribution of South American weasels". Journal of Mammalogy. 59 (1): 92–102.
3. Patterson, Bruce D.; Ramírez-Chaves, Héctor E.; Vilela, Júlio F.; Soares, André E. R.; Grewe, Felix (2021). "On the nomenclature of the American clade of weasels (Carnivora: Mustelidae)". Journal of Animal Diversity. 3 (2): 1–8. doi:10.52547/JAD.2021.3.2.1. ISSN 2676-685X. S2CID 236299740.

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