Int'l recognition key to protecting Mosquitia

The Fellowship of Ringed-tail. part III: The Coati

This is the third of four articles on the Raccoon family, written by Honduran diplomat and HTW collaborator Lisa Villela. We hope that by describing and taking a good look at the species, its relatives habits and traits, our readers will help protect the delicate ecosystem of our planet.

The Coati is a member of the Raccoon family sometimes called the Hog-Nosed Coon because of its long snout. Common names for it include “Coati” and “Gato Solo” (Panama), “Pizote” and “Pizote Solo” (Costa Rica, Honduras), “Chic” and “Sis” (Mayan), “Quash” (Belize), “Andasolo”, “Tejon” and “Tejon Solo” (Mexico), and in the United States “Chulo”, “Chulo Bears”, “Coati”, “Ring-Tailed Coati” and “Coatimundi”. The common name Coati derives from a Guarani language referring to the Coati’s habit of sleeping with the nose tucked on the belly. Although “Coati Monde” from the Brazilian vernacular properly refers to solitary males, it is often used to denote all Coatis. Through usage the spelling has become “Coatimundi”. The indigenous people of Honduras have specific names for the Coati. The Miskito call it “Wistitin”, the Tawahka name is “Wistan”, in the Pech language it is “Tuska” and the Garifuna name is “Fisudi.” All these groups favor the Coati as a succulent source of protein.

The Coati is a curious looking animal that some people describe as a mix between a monkey and an anteater. Outstanding characteristics of the Coati are a long flexible snout, white facial markings around the eyes, and a long ringed tail shared by other members of the family such as the Raccoon and Ringtail.

Female Coatis are social, living in large groups of up to 20 with their young. However, males are largely solitary except during the mating season. This solitary habit explains why people refer to them as “Pizote Solo”. Initially, confusion over solitary males led to the designation of two separate species, one for the solitary adult male and another for the social group members. The two species idea is shared by people in rural areas of Honduras, who believe that the solitary animal is a completely different animal to that found in troops.

Unlike other members of the Raccoon family, Coatis are diurnal spending most of the day searching for food and nesting at night in caves or tree hollows. As they forage through an area they travel with their long tails held vertically. Coatis have an excellent sense of smell and they dig in the soil and leaf litter using their long claws or their noses to turn up grubs, worms, snails, or other invertebrates. They also feed on small reptiles, rodents, fruit and nuts. Coatis can feed on toxic species such as tarantulas, by rolling them between their paws, quickly killing organisms that can bite or sting, and removing the bristles or spines that may make the prey difficult to eat.

Among the major threats to the Coati population are habitat destruction, hunting pressure, and the capture of young for the pet market. Coatis are beautiful curious wild animals. They have strong claws, sharp canines and other defensive characteristics that assist survival in their natural habitat. They should not be taken as pets, when a person purchases a wild animal they encourage local people to continue removing animals from their natural habitat thus threatening the species’ long-term survival.

In the words of Dr. Matthew Gompper, researcher working in Barro Colorado, Panama “although coatis are now legally protected in New Mexico (US) and Honduras under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, throughout most of its range, conservation and management issues have either not been addressed or are not effectively enforced”. This is an unfortunate status for an animal that seems to have been respected by earlier cultures such as the Maya that represented it on hieroglyphs and venerated it as the deity “Zaqui-Nimá-Tziís” the great white coati mundi gray with age, mother of god (Popul Vuh).

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A member of the raccoon family, the coati is locally called “pizote”.

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The Fellowship of the Ringed Tail (Part I)

By LISA VILLELA

This is the first of four articles on the raccoon family, written by Honduran diplomat and HTW collaborator Lisa Villela. We hope that by describing and taking a good look at the species, its relatives, habits and traits, our readers will help protect the delicate ecosystem of our fragile planet.

Part I: The Kinkajou

The Raccoon and its relatives are members of the same family of carnivores, the Procyonidae. The Red Panda, inhabitant of the Himalayas, was formerly included in this family, but most scientists today keep it in a separate category. The Giant Panda of China, also shifted back and forth between the Raccoon and the Bear families, is now classified among Bears. The Raccoon family has six members, all living in temperate and subtropical habitats of the New World: the Raccoon, the Coati, the Ringtail, the Kinkajou, the Mountain Coati, and the Cuataquil or Bushy Tailed Olingo. All, except the last two, can be found in Honduras.

The Raccoon and its cousins share many characteristics, the most conspicuous one being the rings on their tails (the rings are absent or very faint on the Kinkajou). Facial markings, another characteristic of the group, are especially obvious in the Raccoon. Although they are grouped with the carnivores, none of them are truly carnivorous. Some like the Raccoons are omnivorous, and others like the Kinkajous, prefer to feed on fruits. All, except the Coati are crepuscular or nocturnal. They walk on the soles of their feet, like Bears do, and can easily climb trees to avoid predators.

We will begin the series with one of the least known members of the family: the Kinkajou. This rarely seen little animal is found in forest habitats from Southern Mexico to Brazil and it owes its peculiar vernacular name to its cuddly-teddy-bear aspect and nocturnal habits. People in Belize call it "Honey Bear" or "Nightwalker" In Brazil they call it "Macaco de Noite", "Kinkaju", or "Jupara". In some South American countries their common name is "Cuchicuchi", "Pui-pui" or "Mono Michi". In Honduras in particular, they are known as "Mico de Noche", "Micoleon", "Juyo", or "Uyoso". The Tawahka people call it "Uyuc" and the Pech know it as "Urus Karpanwa".

The Kinkajou is relatively small, about the size of a house cat, and has short, soft, woolly fur of a particular honey color. The name "Honey Bear" could be linked to their fur color or their fondness for honey. Kinkajous are similar to their cousins, the ringtails, but their body is stockier and their head is rounder, their face shorter and the ears smaller. Unlike the rest of the members of the family, Kinkajous have a prehensile tail, that is, they can use it as an extra "limb" wrapping in around branches while moving in the tree canopy or while feeding.

Kinkajous are entirely nocturnal and arboreal, preferring to spend the day sleeping in a hollow tree. They come out night to feed but remain in the canopy to avoid predators, Rarely coming down to the forest floor. Kinkajous visit their favorite trees to feed on fruit but they can supplement their diet with flowers, honey, insects, and young birds or other small vertebrates. The Kinkajou has a narrow extendable tongue, which is helpful when feeding on nectar and small fruits.

In Honduras, Kinkajous can be found in broadleaf forests from sea level up to the colder cloud forests. They are rarely seen in the wild because of their nocturnal habits but biologists and nature lovers have spotted them in several protected areas including La Tigra National Park, Cusuco National Park, Sierra de Agalta, La Muralla, and Pico Bonito.

These solitary, gentle little animals can become quite loud and bark when disturbed, and their usual call, heard only when active at night is a "rather shrill, quavering scream that may be heard for nearly a mile". This is probably why in the Lenca regions of Honduras people call it "Uyoso".

Kinkajous are currently threatened by destruction of their forest habitats, hunting its meat and fur, and also by the illegal pet market. Honduras has listed the Kinkajou in Appendix III of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.

Many years ago we volunteered to care for a Kinkajou given up by its former owners. Its story was the usual ; people buy the animals as pets but lose interest or are unable to care for them as the animals mature. Wildlife rehabilitation is complex and difficult. Some people may think that wild animals can be returned easily to the wild after they have been kept as pets but many would be unable to find food and shelter on their own becoming an instant target for predators. They may carry diseases caught from domestic animals and represent a danger to other creatures in the wild. Sometimes the only option for these animals is to live in a shelter or become part of a zoo exhibit. www.blue-n-gold.com/halfdan/osito.htm