At the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base however, there is an over population due to an abundant food source and the lack of natural predators.

Desmarest's hutias are referred to by those stationed at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base as banana rats.

[5] Indeed, the hutia subfamily, Capromyinae, is the sister group to Owl's spiny rat Carterodon.

The latter genus is the sister group to a clade in which Capromys branches off before the Mesocapromys and Mysateles split.

Trinomys (Atlantic spiny rats) Clyomys Euryzygomatomys (guiaras) Carterodon (Owl's spiny rat) Plagiodontia Geocapromys Capromys (Desmarest's hutia) Mesocapromys Mysateles Hutias colonized the islands of the Caribbean as far as the Bahamas by Oceanic dispersal from South America,[11][12] reaching the Greater Antilles by the early Oligocene.