Olinguito

Bassaricyon neblina

The olinguito /oʊlɪŋˈɡiːtoʊ/ is a mammal of the raccoon family Procyonidae that lives in montane forests in the Andes of western Colombia and Ecuador. It was classified as belonging to a new species in 2013. The specific name "neblina" is Spanish for fog or mist, referring to the cloud forest habitat of the olinguito.
Olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina); Bellavista, Ecuador In 2013, two US-American scientists discovered, based on specimens from several museums in the USA, that apparently a new species had been hiding among the archives. DNA tests confirmed that some of the specimens in the museums were neither kinkajous nor olingos, but actually a hitherto not described species. It turned out to be the first new carnivoran mammal described in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. In February 2018, when we visited the Bellavista Lodge in Ecuador, one of those scientists and a research team from Japan was present at the lodge as well, conducting studies about this relative of the olingo named olinguito. A small band of individuals was roaming the cloud forests surrounding the lodge, and some of those would come nightly to snatch bananas from a feeder, undeterred by a bright spotlight that the researchers used. I did not manage to take actual photographs, but filming with my camera worked; this lower-resolution image is actually a still from one of the videos I took. Bassaricyon neblina,Ecuador,Geotagged,Olinguito,Summer,Säugetier

Appearance

The olinguito is distinct from the other species within the genus, popularly known as "olingos", and also from the kinkajou. Its average weight is 900 grams, making it the smallest procyonid. The animal is an omnivorous frugivore that eats mainly fruits, but also insects and nectar; this diet results 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.

Naming

On 22 May 2014, the International Institute for Species Exploration declared the olinguito as one of the "Top 10 New Species of 2014" among species discovered in 2013. It is the first new carnivoran mammal described in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years.

Distribution

Specimens of the species have been identified from the Andean cloud forest stretching from western Colombia to Ecuador, at elevations of 1,500 to 3,000 metres, which is the highest known range of any member of the genus "Bassaricyon". Its discovery was confirmed in the wild and announced on 15 August 2013. 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.

Status

The olinguito may be at risk in the future due to deforestation and urbanization. Since the natural habitat of the olinguito is at higher elevations, this means that its "cloud forest habitat" definitely needs to be protected in order to optimize this species' probability of survival. As of now, no strict efforts are known to be in place in order to reduce habitat destruction.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Status: Near threatened
EX EW CR EN VU NT LC
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionChordata
ClassMammalia
OrderCarnivora
FamilyProcyonidae
GenusBassaricyon
SpeciesB. neblina
Photographed in
Ecuador