Animal of the Week August 16, 2013 -- Olinguito

Sorry grouse, but with my history of giving newly described species their dues, you've been bumped. For this week's Animal of the Week is now Bassaricyon neblina (olinguito).

Mark Gurney

While trying to describe the different subspecies of olingos from the collection and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Kristopher Helgen discovered a drawer full of skins that looked substantially different—he described it as a hairs on the back of the neck, spine tingling sort of moment in the news report I saw. Some careful measurements and DNA confirmation later, Helgman realised that the skins and skulls came from a previously unrecognised species.

The four species of olingo and the olinguito are members of the same family of animals as raccoons, kinkajous, and coatis. The olingo is the smallest member of that family, and differs from the olingos by having bushier hair, smaller ears, and living at higher altitudes in the montain rainforests of the Andes. Having found the museum specimens, scientists then went to look for it in the wild, and sure enough, they found one. Based on the specimens collected, the olinguito likely has a range from central Columbia to Ecuador.

Although they belong to the Carnivora group of animals, olingos and olinguitos seem to eat more fruit than anything else, occasionally supplementing their diet with nectar and insects. The label Carnivora links those animals (from seals to weasels, to cats, dogs, and hyenas) all descended from a single ancestor, and doesn't always mean that the animal is a carnivore—just look at that bamboo guzzling idiot the panda.

Several olinguitos have been kept in zoos, so this isn't the case where an expedition has stumbled across an animal new to western science as happened with the kipunji, the world's smallest frog, or this animal of the week from 2005. Rather, it was the recognition that had previously been thought to be one thing, was actually something different, as happened with the Arunachal macaque or the clouded leopard of Borneo...and also with the recognition of orangutans as two species, and African elephants as two species. So while I've personally nothing agains the olinguito, I doubt the story would have attracted so much attention had it happened in any other month than August.