Logan's Run - Christmas just seems appropriate for this story.

 
If you're looking at the picture on the right and your heart is breaking?  I'm right there with you.  A couple of years ago I came across this photo during a Google image search for coatimundis.  Immediately I clicked on the image to find out more about the story behind the photo.  To my shock, this damage was committed by a human being who'd dumped this poor little guy into the snow where he fended for himself during several winter storms for EIGHT DAYS!
  You can read all about Logan's rescue, his fight for survival, the amazing people who cared for him and his tear-jerking recovery.
  After I'd found the site and read Logan's Blog I really wanted to contribute and find out more about his current condition.  Because the site is so unorganized, it's really difficult to find out what's happening with him as of this writing.  I've sent several emails through the site but have yet to get some kind of response (that was during '07 when the blog was more active).  Deciding to post this whole story about this poor little coati also prompted me to send a few more emails in hopes of finding out what ever happened to Logan.
  I'll keep you posted if I hear anything.
  To read this story in a more organized fashion than the original site allows you to, I'm posting links to the various pages in an order that's easier to digest.
  One word of warning.  The photo gallery can be hard to look at for some people.  If you have a hard time looking at images of injured appendages?  I suggest you steer clear of the photos.  To get yourself fired up and motivated to help centers that do this kind of rescue work?  By all means look at the photos.  Nothing will piss you off faster or make you take action quicker than seeing what occurred to this little guy because someone just decided to toss him out the window.

Looking for Logan and His Rescue!

The Original Press Release When The Story Broke

Logan's Blog

Logan's Photo Gallery (w/o surgical photos)

Logan's Surgery Photos (Not for the squeamish) See what this poor little guy had to endure.

  Sorry to be a downer during this time of year, but Logan's battle for survival is a reminder of how we should all be looking out for each other.  And that includes the smallest of us.  That includes Logan.
  Take care of each other.
  Tony

Thanksgiving, Coati-style.

Hey, everyone!
  While I stuff myself with anything that's in a dish and on the table, I thought I'd take a moment to share this YouTube video.
  Thought that this video would be fitting for Thanksgiving since the coati featured in it is obviously thankful that someone would be so stupid to open their lunch bag with my favorite little troublemaker nearby.
  Happy Belated Thanksgiving, people!

What exactly IS a Coatimundi? For the uninitiated.

One thing that never crossed my mind when I first began this blog was that not everyone knows what a coati is.  You mention the name and people just kind of give you that look like you just spoke a different language.  While this blog is for fans of this little critter, I'd be pretty stupid not to include a little background about the coati for people unfamiliar with them.
My personal quick description for common people to really grasp what a coatimundi can be like?  Consider a three-year-old ADD child on crack who likes to work on stuff...all...the..time.  Sums it all up really quick.
There's some really good information in the Wikipedia entry on the coati:
Wikipedia Coati Entry

And another source that the Coati Wiki links to has some VERY useful information on those that, for whatever reason, decide that a coati would make a good pet (I do NOT advocate them as pets unless you've had exotic experience for a couple of years and are a VERY patient, caring, understanding and intelligent pet owner).

Mundoandino Argentina

Hope these links help with really grasping just how interesting this unique little animal is.

Take care.

The Peel Street Monster

 

Since Halloween is fast approaching, I thought it might be interesting to learn about a mysterious creature which appeared during the winter of 1933-34 in the town of Wolverhampton in the UK.  This 'creature' caused quite a bit of drama upon its discovery.  Not only did this creature attack children, it became a frightening epidemic when a second 'monster' was discovered just after the first was cornered in an alley and stoned to death for attacking a five-year-old boy.  The town was in a panic, worried that a plague of these aggressive creatures who attacked children had decided this would be ground zero for some kind of invasion.
  Just what kind of creature would cause such mayhem, instill such fear in a small town and cause a near riot upon their impending take-ver of the area?
  Yeah.  You already guessed it.  A coati.
  When I originally read the account of the Peel Street Monster I'd found in the Fortean Times magazine (issue #134, June-2000 - and yes, I'm aware I read strange things), I chuckled a little at first.  What other 'monster' COULD have been the instigator of such an uproar BUT a coati?  Known for their shenanigans while in captivity, it made me smile to know that my favorite little 'monster' of an animal had once terrrorized an entire town.
  What saddened me though,  was how the little guy was put down.  After apparently attacking a child, a 17-year-old boy decided to chase the coati into an alley where it became cornered and a group of boys stoned the animal to death.  Just another great example of human beings and their ridiculous fear of what they don't know much about.
  Experts were called in to identify the animal.  Because of a lack of information at that time, it took a while before someone correctly identified the animal which some described as an anteater.  During the speculation as to what the creature was, the body of a second coati (this one a female) was found.
  Wolverhampton's populace had begun to wonder if an entire colony of the formidable, child-eating creatures had taken up residence somewhere nearby.
  Eventually everyone came to the conclusion that the pair of coati were part of a traveling menagerie which were frequent during that period.  Small circuses, sideshows and random exhibits often made stops in small towns, collected some cash for their exhibit and then went on their way.  It wouldn't surprise me to learn that these two coati decided it was time for a jailbreak, that they'd had enough of the circus and that the little town of Wolverhampton was as good a place as any to settle down. 
  One of the things that interested me about the Fortean Times article (it's not available in their archives) is the mention of a photograph of the first coati after it had been destroyed, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.  I've put a request in to the Wolverhampton Express and Star newspapers to track down this photo.  I'll keep you posted when I receive a response from that request.
  For now, I've included a picture of the cover of the issue of the Fortean Times that included the article, a large picture of the page containing the article which you should be able to read (if you can't read it and would like a copy of the photo, please let me know and if, by any chance, someone at Fortean Times decides I'm violating some kind of copyright issue PLEASE email me so we may resolve the issue) as well as a couple of other clippings I found that made reference to the Peel Street Monster attacks.
  When I'd first heard of this incident, like I'd mentioned at the beginning of this post, it made me smirk a little.  Not because of how tragically it ended, but because only my favorite little critter in the animal kingdom could go down in history by escaping from a circus, attacking children and disrupting an entire town!
  Be safe, have an AMAZING Halloween and pass on the story of the little coatimundi who became a cryptozoological legend known as the The Peel Street Monster!

 

The Collected Coatimundi - Is this really necessary?

 
  For some time now, I've had an acute fascination with a little known critter that ranges from the southern tip of South America all the way north into Texas and New Mexico here in the states. Often referred to as "South America's Raccoon", information on this creatures' natural lifestyle, behaviours, intelligence, language and history is seriously lacking!
With severe claws and four self-sharpening, inch-long canines that could rip human flesh open like wet tissue-paper, rotating anklebones, monkey-like tree gymnastics, a nose that can smell food buried at least twelve inches in the ground, an intelligence that verges on uncanny, an ability to adapt to almost any environment and an attitude that would cause a creature four times its size to just walk the hell away once its teeth are bared, you'd think I decided to blog about a species of chupacabra. Truth is, it might very well be.
In this blog, I'm going to take a closer look at what I consider one of the most interesting little animals I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with.
"You interacted with this thing?"
Yes on several occasions...and I'm still alive to tell the tale. That's the point of this blog, to tell the many tales of a little creature called a coatimundi (coati, nasua narica, nasua nasua).
Just what the hell is a, ay it with me...Koo-watt-tee or Koo-watt-tee-munn-dee or Koo-watt-tee-moon-dee?
Throughout my look into the scant research available on coatimundis (I'm not sure if that's the correct pluralization. Please correct me if it's not), I've come across some amazing stories, first-hand experiences both good and bad and even the ugly. I've been fortunate enough to find very interesting people who're studying the little crazies in the jungles of South America and have even had battles on Ebay for coati-themed artwork from other coati admirers. During all of this random mentioning of the coati throughout the last several years, I finally asked myself why I just didn't start a blog concerning all the information available about the animal. There're videos, audio, science papers and all sorts of ephemera out there. Looking for it is an entirely different thing altogether.
For those that know of the coati, I hope you enjoy some of the things I'll be sharing with you during this blog. Some of it you may already know while some of it may be brand new and, hopefully, exciting reading. For those of you that didn't know of the coatimundi until now? Boy, are you in for some interesting reading.
What I truly hope this blog will do is become not just another scientific, dry place to learn about the coati, but a light, breezy, informative and enlightening read about what I consider one of the planet's most interesting little denizens.
Until next time,
Take care,
Tijuana Taxi