New Study Shows Female Coatis Teach Juveniles How to Steal!

A new study and research is showing that female coati will teach juveniles how to steal from unrelated coatis!

Ben Hirsch of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute:

"No previously published model of animal behavior would have predicted that young juvenile coatis should regularly attack and steal food from older relatives. Additionally, the pattern that adult females come to the aid of these non-related juveniles really flies in the face of what we thought. What we have described is a quasi-cooperative behavior that is evidently not kin based."

To read more of the interesting behavior follow the link below:

[LiveScience]

Recent Study on Skulls - Coati Included

A recent study concerning the size of the frontal cortex in relation to proclivity to social activity in animals was carried out. About the coati:

"In her latest study, Sakai examined the digitally recreated brains of three species in the Procyonid family – the raccoon, the coatimundi and the kinkajou – and found the coatimundi had the largest frontal cortex. The frontal cortex is thought to regulate social interaction, and the coatimundi is by far the most social of the three animals, often living in bands of 20 or more."

The other three animals included in the study were hyenas, lions and raccoons. Read the rest of the very brief article