It's the Olinguito: opss, was already there!

The discovery of new species always fascinates me a lot, whether it be of microscopic gnats whether it is something more "substantial". This time the news is really interesting, because the newcomer, or rather the newly identified, since he was already there, even if you did not know, is nothing less than a cute mammal, like a raccoon, and it is news even more interesting because it is the first carnivore discovered in the Western Hemisphere in the last 35 years! The discovery did not take place-as opposed to what you might think-in a particularly adventurous Indiana Jones-style, but within the walls of a building, in particular between the walls of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, where a decade ago teh zoologist Helgen, intent to study a South American mammal, the Olingo, examining the skins and skulls, noticed that some were different from the other, smaller and hairy, the color of the hair was reddish, the shape of the muzzle and teeth a bit 'different and realized it was another species, the olinguito fact, diminutive in Spanish language Olinguo, a hypothesis later confirmed by DNA analysis. He was so organized an expedition on the trail of this new animal which also participated in a zoologist Ecuadorian who had filmed, even if for a few minutes, a specimen of olinguito recently. The expedition was successful and the specimens were indeed found between 1500 and 2700 meters climbed trees in the rain forests of the Andes in Ecuador and Bolivia. It is a very shy animal, belonging to the family of Procyonidae, and looks like a cross between a bear and a cat, it has some very big eyes and a long tail and, although carnivorous, feeding instead of fruit. And 'night, not like down from the trees and it is very small: it weighs about 1 pound and measures about 35 cm. At this shy animal was given the name of Bassarycion neblina ie mist. Just found out but unfortunately it has already been recognized to be quite risky, because its habitat, ie the rainforests where he lives, have decreased by over 40% having been converted into agricultural land.
A rather funny anecdote is that surely at least one olinguito was exposed in the seventies of the last century in an American zoo. It was a female named Ringerl which was then regarded as a lady of taste rather difficult because he always refused to mate with several males when it was brought into contact, but apparently everyone was too busy trying to psychoanalyze the poor and no one noticed that there were relevant differences between yourself and the various partners that were proposed. Poor Ringerl ... is already so hard to have a lasting relationship with captive individuals of their own species, let alone with someone of another species ... and thank goodness that was not fashionable then run by psychologists for treatment of torque, otherwise it would be very interesting to know What she would have "diagnosed" the analyst and especially what course of treatment of the couple would have recommended!

an article by Sabrina Mancinelli