Photo of Researcher Being Attacked by Coati in 1927!

What you're looking at was something I discovered over on the Smithsonian's site.

It's a researcher in Panama in 1927 named Molino. I don't have any other information about the man in the photo.

The caption simply reads:

"Coati (Nasua nasua) attacking Molino due to noise of shaking keys"

Having worked closely with coatis, I learned that this sound drives them crazy! It can be clattering silverware on the floor or the jangling of a set of keys like in the photo above. Because there's nobody out wandering around dropping their silverware or jangling their set of keys in the wild, many who study the coati wonder why the sound triggers such an aggressive response from most that hear it or similar metallic noises. I've seen coati rolled cat toys around like they might a tarantula if they were in the wild...without ever learning the behavior or ever having had an interaction with a tarantula.

I would love to hear peoples' thoughts as to what it is about jangling keys or metallic sounds that causes the coati to go a little mad. It's a fascinating response and behavior that I've always been curious to learn about.

Would love to hear some theories.

1879 Department of the Interior Study on the Coati

During my routine search on Amazon for coati-related items, I came across an interesting study published by the Department of the Interior...in 1879!

You can read more about the author and zoologist Joseph Asaph Allen on a Wikipedia about him. Purchase the book on Amazon or get it on Google Play Books for free!

Pop-Sci Monthly Article On The "Coati-Mondi" - Written 141 Years Ago in 1872!

This is just awesome.

Popular Science Monthly featured an article titled "THE COATI-MONDI AND ITS COUSINS" that was written by Rev. S. LOCKWOOD, PhD and published in the December 1827 edition of the periodical. It even features a couple of sketches of the "coati-mondi" (one is posted above).

Being someone who's extremely interested in moments where the coati has turned up in history, this article absolutely fascinates me.

I'm not going to lie, it's an extremely wordy, adjective-filled article with the language of the day. Most people will just skim through it. For those familiar with the coati and its behaviors? Don't skim it. You'll miss some of the coolest stuff that will make you smile because you'll just nod your head that 141 years ago someone was dealing with an animal that's behavior has not a changed a bit.

Lockwood talks about the "Jack" getting into everything, describes the variations of the squeaky language that the coati "speaks", describes its love for eggs, talks about the perfuming of its tail, annoying other animals on the ship....and that's another thing...

This all takes place on a ship!

It's just a very cool moment in time when people were beginning to really document the world around them and exploration was in its modern infancy.

Take the time to read through it and really feel the time period and the environment in which it was written and you'll come away smiling that yet, once again, the coati nosed its way into another part of history.

Read the entire article here

Wonders of the Animal Kingdom - Or how to eat everything in the animal kingdom according to a kids' sticker book.

I've been wanting to get back to this blog for a while. I have a lot of new things to post but would rather feed them out gradually over time than posting them all at once and then having another lull in posting to this blog.

Just a couple of days ago i was killing some time in an antique store in south-ish Florida and came across an old animal book titled "Wonder of the Animal Kingdom" (sorry...didn't look at all the who published/illustrated info).

The book was like a sticker book where you would collect dozens of different kinds of animal stickers and put them in the book in a space for the sticker next to the corresponding animal.

Of course I had to thumb through it to see if there was any mention of a coati.

There was.

Awesome.

Then I read the little blurb describing the coatimundi next to the sticker and my face went blank at the last sentence..."Its snout it large and its meat has an excellent flavor."

Wait...whaaat? "...its meat has an excellent flavor"?

Then I read the blurb above it about "119. The Hog" which stated in the last sentence about that particular animal that "All meat from this domestic animal should be thoroughly cooked before it is eaten."

After a couple more pages of similarly weird descriptions of animals I put the book back in its place under a bunch of other books that no one will probably ever buy and walked off.

Here are the cover of the book and the sticker and blurb about the coati.

Thanks for continuing to read the blog despite the massive gap in posts and I look forward to sharing more awesome things about my absolute favorite animal...the coatimundi.

The Search for Charlie Crowfoot and the Coatimundi continues...

  My mission to get a viewable copy of 'Charlie Crowfoot and the Coatimundi' continues.
  Having $99 dollars would probably help at this point.  Apparently the film is available on a 'Disney Treasures Collection' DVD!  When an extra one hundred dollar bill lands in my lap, I'm going to have to continue my hunt for a cheaper version of this film.
  During Christmas I received a very cool gift from someone who truly 'gets' my love for coatis.  The last gift I was handed to open was a very light, very flat object about the size of a standard sheet of typing paper.  After removing the bow, carefully peeling off the wrapping paper and separating two flat rigid piece of shipping cardboard used for photos, I was elated to see an old black-and-white glossy print of a photo of a coati perched on a metal bar.  The tagline on the bottom of the photo got me even more excited...'The Wonderful World of Disney - Charlie Crowfoot and the Coati Mundi'!
  Amazing!
  It's a piece of promotional material used to promote the film.
  Below you'll find two high-resolution images of the front and back of the photo.
  While I have yet to see the film, I quietly love not being able to afford it right now.  It's not always about the end of the race, it's most definitely about the journey.
   Hopefully you'll enjoy following along as this blog continues and I uncover more and more cool things that coatis have managed to get themselves into.
  Thanks for your continued support of this blog and enjoy the photos!

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