Raccoon-like olinguito was discovered living in the threatened cloud forests of South America.
The long-tailed, orange-furred, big-eyed olinguito – said to resemble a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear – is the newest mammal and the first carnivore to be discovered in the Americas in 35 years.
Native to the high, misty cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, the olinguito is the smallest member of the raccoon family, according to Kristofer Helgen, a Smithsonian scientist who recognised it as a distinct species 10 years ago.
The “aha” moment occurred not in a South American forest but at Chicago’s Field Museum, the creature’s discoverer, Helgen said at a news briefing on Thursday.
“I pulled out a drawer … and said ‘Wow,'” Helgen recalled of his first view of a long-dead 20th century specimen, which had been identified as a related species, the olingo. “It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.”
Helgen said the teeth and skull of the specimen were much different from those of an olingo, which is larger and has more prominent ears than the olinguito.
He said he could have published this finding in a scientific journal then, but in the interest of being thorough, he sought out colleagues to confirm the existence of the new species in its natural habitat.
Carnivores
Olinguitos are considered carnivores, even though they eat mostly fruit, Helgen said. These creatures have teeth that look fully capable of eating meat, he added.
They have thick, woolly fur that is brighter than that of the more drab-colored Olingos. Olinguitos are about .76 metres long and weigh about 900 grams.
Males and females are about the same size, and females raise a single baby at a time, the scientists said.
Olinguitos are hard to spot in the cloud forests of the northern Andes, which are thickly wooded and often shrouded in fog or mist with elevations of 1,524 to 2,743 metres above sea level.
Largely nocturnal, they spend most of their time in the forest canopy and are adept at jumping from tree to tree.
Helgen and his team closely observed the animal’s habits and environment.
Andean cloud forests are considered unique ecosystems because of the variety of species they support, but they are being deforested to make way for agriculture, urbanisation and the illegal drug trade.
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