The Olinguito

The olinguito is a small mammal with fluffy red-orange fur, a short bushy tail, and an adorable rounded face has leapt onto the raccoon family tree.

This animal is distinct from the other species within the genus, popularly known as "olingos", and also from the kinkajou (kinkajous resemble olingos, but are not closely related). Its average weight is 900 grams (2 lb), making it the smaller procyoid.

The animal is an omnivourus frugivore that eats mainly fruits (such as figs), but also insects and nectar resulting in feces the size of small blueberries. The olinguito is thought to be solitary, nocturnal and moderately reclusive. Olinguitos appear to be strictly arboreal. They have a single pair of mammae, and probably produce a single offspring at a time.

Distribution and habitat

Specimens of the species have been identified from the Andean cloud forest stretching from western Colombia to Ecuator. Its discovery was confirmed in the wild and announced on 15 August 2013 by Kristofer Helgen, the curator of mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, olingo expert Roland Kays of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and collaborators. Helgen discovered specimens of the species in storage at The Field Museum in Chicago and used DNA testing to confirm a new species. The researchers who identified the species were unable to discover any local names specific to it.

The species is not considered to be immediately at risk, but it is estimated that over 40 percent of the animal's potential range has been deforested.

Such a discovery is rare. The olinguito is the first mammalian carnivore species to be newly identified in the Americas in 35 years, according to Kristofer Helgen.