Ring-tailed coati

Scientific Name Nasua nasua Animal type Mammal Location South America, east of the Andes. Conservation Status Least Concern

Profile

This relative of the raccoon, with its snuffling nose and scrabbling claws, is a wonderfully adapted invertebrate hunter. Of the three coati species, the ring-tailed is the least threatened, but is declining in its native South America because of habitat loss to humans. Durrell first began working with the ring-tailed coati as a ‘model’ and mixed-exhibit species in 1998, with the arrival at Durrell’s headquarters in Jersey of a group of six coatis from Chester Zoo.

This enabled us to develop successful husbandry methods for hopeful future use on a more endangered species, and set up the first mixed exhibit of carnivores with the coatis living alongside the Andean bears in the Cloud Forest Exhibit (formerly known as First Impressions).

Factsheets

• Ring Tailed Coati factsheet (74 kb)

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