"OLINGUITO": WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE!!!

With big eyes, orange-brown coat and 2 kg of weight, the olinguito (Bassarycion neblina) is a relative of coati

The scientific name B. neblina is a reference to the landscape where the animal lives, forests of Ecuadorian and Colombian mountains, which are often covered by fog

ZooKeys 324 (2013) : Special issue: 1-83 Taxonomic revision of the olingos (Bassaricyon), with description of a new species, the Olinguito  Taxonomic revision of the olingos (Bassaricyon), with description of a new species, the Olinguito Kristofer M. Helgen, Miguel Pinto, Roland Kays, Lauren Helgen, Mirian Tsuchiya, Aleta Quinn, Don Wilson, Jesus Maldonado doi: 10.3897/zookeys.324.5827 Published: 15.08.2013 Viewed by: 27298 Abstract We present the first comprehensive taxonomic revision and review the biology of the olingos, the endemic Neotropical procyonid genusBassaricyon, based on most specimens available in museums, and with data derived from anatomy, morphometrics, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, field observations, and geographic range modeling. Species ofBassaricyon are primarily forest-living, arboreal, nocturnal, frugivorous, and solitary, and have one young at a time. We demonstrate that four olingo species can be recognized, including a Central American species (B. gabbii), lowland species with eastern, cis-Andean (B. alleni) and western, trans-Andean (B. medius) distributions, and a species endemic to cloud forests in the Andes. The oldest evolutionary divergence in the genus is between this last species, endemic to the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador, and all other species, which occur in lower elevation habitats. Surprisingly, this Andean endemic species, which we call the Olinguito, has never been previously described; it represents a new species in the order Carnivora and is the smallest living member of the family Procyonidae. We report on the biology of this new species based on information from museum specimens, niche modeling, and fieldwork in western Ecuador, and describe four Olinguito subspecies based on morphological distinctions across different regions of the Northern Andes