Scientists Discover A New Mammal - The Olinguito

Here is an animal that lives in the cloud forests of the Andes, only comes out at night, and is the first new carnivore described in 35 years! It's also the cutest thing you've ever seen.

This mysterious creature has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years. While rarely seen ever due to its nature, a few specimens existed in collections. A team of Smithsonian scientists recently uncovered overlooked museum specimens of this remarkable animal, which took them on a journey from museum cabinets in Chicago to cloud forests in South America to genetics labs in Washington, D.C. The result: the Olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina)―the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. The team's discovery is published in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal ZooKeys.

The olinguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe) looks like a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear. It is actually the latest scientifically documented member of the family Procyonidae, which it shares with raccoons, coatis, kinkajous and olingos. The 2-pound olinguito, with its large eyes and woolly orange-brown fur, is native to the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, as its scientific name, "neblina" (Spanish for "fog"), hints. In addition to being the latest described member of its family, another distinction the olinguito holds is that it is the newest species in the order Carnivora―an incredibly rare discovery in the 21st century.

Many thanks to:

Michelle Lotker for helping film at the museum
Roland Kays for setting up the interviews and taking time to show me around the NRC
The amazing authors and co-authors on this project:

Kristofer M. Helgen1, C. Miguel Pinto2,3,4,5, Roland Kays6,7,8, Lauren E. Helgen1, Mirian T. N. Tsuchiya1,9,10, Aleta Quinn1, Don E. Wilson1, and Jesús E. Maldonado1,10

1 Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History, NHB 390, MRC 108, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
2 Department of Biological Sciences and the Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409-3131, USA
3 Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas, Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de Octubre y Roca, Quito, Ecuador
4 The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Ave., New York, NY, 10016 USA
5 Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA
6 North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC, 27601, USA
7 Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Program, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA
8 Center for Tropical Forest Science, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa Ancón, Republic of Panamá
9 Department of Environmental Science & Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030 USA
10 Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC 20008, USA

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[THEMODERNNEGATIVE]

This "discovery" is only a discovery for western zoology. I visited a family of banana farmers in Colombia and they had a baby Olinguito they were nursing. They described it as Perro De Montonia. The locals I talked to said they have always known about them. On another note, it was literally the cutest thing I've ever held.

[MRYOUNG]

coolest thing I've seen in a while, so humbling to think they were right under scientists' noses. Proving the more we know, the more we know we don;t know. Great vid congrats to the discoverer.

[annashelton]

Enjoyed your video; best of the three or four I've seen since Thursday! Very exciting news and, yes, olinguitos are cute. (:

[mariaeugeniavelasquez]

They are very beautiful, sighted for some years in eastern Antioquia, Colombia. I love their sound ienen to feed late at night, they look for fruits and apparently they like the nectar of the palms

[UntamedScience]

I do too! When Roland went down there he said it's really really hard to even get a picture of them. Imagine an animal that only comes out at night, and only lives up in the canopy. Add to that they're basically living in a cloud, so you can't see but a few feet. Makes it hard to find them, let alone get video. Either way, I'm going to see if I can head down with the team next time to get some footage.

[reepermaple]

YES! another awesome channel to sub to :DDD

[logangomez]

Cool! Let's keep discovering new species.

[robnelsonfilms]

I hope so too! That would be pretty awesome, wouldn't it!

[CoreyStudios]

We can try domesticating this new species. May sound weird to some, but making it a pet may be possible. We may need scientific study to see if they are worthy of becoming pets.

[xicoo]

We the Ecuadores are getting Cutter with the TIME !!!

THANKS

[UntamedScience]

It probably eats mostly fruit, according to Roland, but mostly doesn't mean it wouldn't eat a chicken egg on the forest floor. I'd take the bet that it was an omnivore.

[UntamedScience]

Enalius, this may not be a fully carnivorous carnivore, but the phrase "carnivore" is used by zoologists simply to describe all animals in the order Carnivora. The zoologists put out the announcement that they found a new "carnivore" - which is fully correct. However, some news stations have misquoted them saying they found a new carnivorous mammal. That's not the same of course. Hope that clears things up a bit. :)

[UntamedScience]

Gotcha. I'll put that on the to-do list for next time. More slow-mo... :)

[MasterLng]

Could somebody tell me the name mentioned at 1:18 please? I could not understand it.

[thehantavirus]

omnivory doesnt neccesarily mean eating mammal, fish or bird meat. It can eat insects and veggies and still be called omnivirous

[bonncaruso]

totally cool! wow, still discovering and cataloguing species in the 21st Century.... wow...

[lollipopcorndog]

They’ve must’ve been in for so much years.

[Ashweb]

oops. just saw the glowing-eyes blacklight quick strip...want more in slo mo!

[UntamedScience]

I hope not. Some researchers told me the same thing happened with the Slow Lorises once a video on them went viral.

[whippethacreem]

It looks like a doggo... But also a catto?