Exhibit for Coatimundi

Has anyone seen a verifiable photo of a mountain coati? All the alleged photos I've seen are of captive individuals who look supsiciously like ring-tailed coatis. Based off of descriptions I've read of Nasuella, these photos do not match up.
 
In lynx carnivores of the world they have a photo I think. They are alot smaller than other coati species with quite a uniform dark coat. They are meant to be pretty nocturnal too but I'm unaware of any behavioural studies in the wild! Do you have photos of the parents of your animals? These would help alog I think!
 
olivacea and nasua can be VERY similar in appearance. An easy way to tell the difference is in the size of the animal (much easier to judge once the animal is an adult). olivacea will have a body length of about 14-15 inches.
nasua will have a body length greater than that, 16-23 inches. Their tails are also much longer!

Having seen the parents of these babies (having also seen many common coatis) the size difference was easy for me, but i understand looking at pics of something so young can make it hard to see that.
 
Ituri said:
Has anyone seen a verifiable photo of a mountain coati?
Click to expand...

Sorry for reopening an old thread but here are photos of real mountain coatis.
1
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3
4

First two from Ecuador and second two from Colombia. Mountain coatis in Venezuela are a bit paler and have a dark stripe on the back. No firm evidence that supports claims of mountain coatis in Peru but they probably are in the north because they are found near the border in Ecuador. Some variations in the color of the mountain coatis but much less extreme than in the South American coati which can be overall brown, gray, orange, black or somewhere in between. Almost all google photos of 'mountain coati' are wrong. With their very long nose and very large bare nose patch real mountain coatis look quite different from 'ordinary' coatis and are easy to recognize even when you can't judge the size of the animal on the photo. Mountain coatis also have different facial markings but this is very variable in the South American coati and it can have the mountain coati pattern. The great photo in the gallery is certainly a South American coati: http://www.zoochat.com/262/baby-mountain-coati-166743/. Congratulations with the birth. A great event no matter what coati it is.

One problem is that there are very few books with paintings/photos of the mountain coati and without that people have to rely on short written descriptions to make the identification. Another problem is that the South American coati varies a lot in size. But not as small as the mountain coati which weighs less than 1.5 kg when adult (2 kg or more in South American). A problem in the wild is that the altitude where you can see South American coati overlaps the altitude where you can see mountain coati. Just because it is in the mountains doesn't mean it has to be a mountain coati. It is only at the highest altitudes where you can exclude South American coati by that.

Al said:
They are meant to be pretty nocturnal too but I'm unaware of any behavioural studies in the wild!
Click to expand...

Only three
--Rodriguez-Bolanos. (1995). Rango de accion y habitos alimenticios del coati de montana, Nasuella oliveceo, en la Reserva Biologica Carpanta. Undergraduate Thesis, Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas, Colombia.
--Rodriguez-Bolanos, Cadena, Sanchez (2000). Trophic characteristics in social groups of the Mountain coati, Nasuella olivacea (Carnivora: Procyonidae). Small Carnivore Conservation 23: 1–6.
--Rodríguez-Bolanos, Sanchez, Cadena (2003). Patterns of activity and home range of Mountain Coati Nasuella olivacea. Small Carnivore Conservation 29: 16-19.

The behavior appears similar to the lowland coatis (active during the day, adult males excluded from groups) but the mountain coati feeds less on plant material (fruits etc) and the strange nose is probably an adaption for rooting in earth (almost all food is found on or below the soil). All studies from the same place in Colombia and its behavior could be different elsewhere: head smaller in Ecuador than in Colombia and teeth much smaller in Venezuela than in Ecuador and Colombia. There are no studies from captivity because very few have ever been kept. ISIS has mountain coati in three US zoos. ISIS

I will believe it when I see a photo of a real mountain coati from one of those zoos. Until then I presume they got their 'mountain coati' from one of the many private keepers that have photos of 'mountain coati' on the internet.
Bottle baby coatimundi in Mount Pleasant, Texas
Little (Mountain) Coatimundi
Toby the Mountain Coati!
Space Farms Zoo welcomes exotic mountain coatimundi to the family
Mountain Coati Debut at the Central Park Zoo
and many more.

Yes, last link are the Central Park 'mountain coatis'. All are South American except first link has both South American and white-nosed coati on the photos and second link has a black and white photo of a white-nosed near the bottom.
 
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thanks for all that condor, it pretty much proves what most of us suspected - that the coatis in US zoos aren't mountain coatis at all. We just needed someone with some good evidence to show it. Those photos really are fantastic; very very different in appearance from regular coatis. Their noses are amazing! :D
 
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