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
