8 January 2024
When you’ve been to the American Southwest, Central America or northern Colombia, you’ll have encountered a white-nosed coati (Nasua narica), the tropical daytime equal of the raccoon. Like his cousin he has a protracted striped tail, can climb bushes and isn’t choosy about what he eats.
Curiously he loves balsa (Ochroma pyramidale) nectar and is essential to the tree’s propagation. Coatis insert their lengthy slender snouts into the flowers, get pollen on their noses and transfer on to pollinate different flowers. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
Coatis are comparatively uncommon within the American Southwest so it was cool when this one made an look on the Customer Middle at Coronado NPS southeastern Arizona.
If meals is plentiful close to people coatis overcome their wariness, as they’ve finished in an enormous manner at this park in Villahermosa, Mexico.
Inevitably the courageous ones trigger bother, similar to raccoons.
These cousins may encounter one another inside the coati’s extra restricted vary although they function at completely different instances — the coati throughout the day, the raccoon at evening.
I’m wondering how they react once they meet one another.
“Hi there there, cousin.”
(credit are within the captions)
