White-nosed Coati (Nasua narica) at Zoologischer Garten Magdeburg - 5 April

As noted in my report on Magdeburg, the presence of this taxon in the outdoor paddock for Lowland Tapir was a surprise; albeit a very pleasant one.

As these animals came through a new import from Costa Rica, via Havana Zoo in Cuba, and look rather different from those animals that had already been present in European collections, I suspect the Whitenosed Coati at Magdeburg will represent a different subspecies from most in Europe.

Interestingly (though very possibly simply due to individual variation), this animal looks a lot more like the captive coatis I saw in Costa Rica than the wild ones. Note in particular the thickness of the fur on the tail:

Captive: http://www.zoochat.com/2146/white-nosed-coati-zoo-simon-bolivar-362781/
Wild: http://www.zoochat.com/287/white-nosed-coati-monteverde-reserve-20-a-366371/

EDIT:
As an aside, Handbook of the Mammals of the World lists the following subspecies of Nasua narica:

N. n. narica - southern Mexico, Central America and north-west Colombia
N. n. molaris - Mexico and south-west USA
N. n. nelsoni - Cozumel Island (Mexico)
N. n. yucatanica - Yucatan (Mexico)

...which in brief means that any animals that originate in Costa Rica will be N. n. narica - but this subspecies is quite wide-ranging and animals from plenty of other places would be the same subspecies.

There is definitely some level of individual variation going on, as one of the other animals in the enclosure looked close enough to a Ringtailed Coati that until we got a look at the head we took it to belong to said taxon, whilst another of the animals looked quite like the wild coati you saw in Costa Rica.

This rather suggests this import is of nominate animals, which thus leads to the question - to what, if any, subspecies does the preexisting captive population in Europe belong? I suspect they *might* be N.n.molaris but not entirely certain.

The original animals originated from Costa Rica!

Al said:

The original animals originated from Costa Rica!

Click to expand...

See, this is what we need - a man with knowledge!

Cheers Al!

Al said:

The original animals originated from Costa Rica!

Click to expand...

Ahh, interesting - so the difference to those is presumably individual variation too

Of course, the only one I have seen from that import was the old Colchester/Paignton animal, so not exactly the biggest reference pool!

Al said:

The original animals originated from Costa Rica!

Click to expand...

So all of Europe's White-Nosed Coatis will be the nominate ssp?

~Thylo