Of all the animals I have encountered in Costa Rica, I think the coati (or coatimundi) might be the most surprising. How did I go through my whole life without knowing of the existence of these guys? Well, in fact I haven’t… many moons ago I visited Iguazu Falls in South America and they are positively ubiquitous there. But I had forgotten about them until I came back here. And in any case, the one here, which is called a pizote in Spanish, is a different species from the one in Brazil. “Our” species is the White-nosed coati. See? Their noses are white.
They’re everywhere in Monteverde. In the rainforest, you might see a group of 15 to 20 together, rooting around in the leaves. Lynnette and I went walking in Bajo del Tigre Reserve yesterday and happened upon a big troop on both sides of the trail. They were entirely uninterested in our presence. Here’s a bit of evidence of how uninterested they are in the two-legs (sorry, I’m no cinematographer, but I did take these videos myself…):
But they’re not exclusive to the forest. As a matter of fact, they’re a bit like raccoons in that they are perfectly willing to approach human habitats. As in, say, the habitat which is our deck. We made the mistake of leaving a big bunch of bananas on our deck when we left town for a few days and when we came back… let’s just say it was no longer a “bunch” of bananas.
I got some footage of one fellow who unfortunately had a bad leg:
Felt pretty bad for him. He’s definitely not the only one to have visited us, though.
Anyway, even though I see them around a lot, I don’t know much about them. So I figured I would look up some info, learn a bit, and write it up here. Lucky you! Behold! Coati Frequently Asked Questions!
The Coati FAQ
Where do they live?
The White-nosed coati lives from Mexico to the southern end of Panama. It is apparently not terribly interested in South America!
What do they eat?
Wikipedia states that the White-nosed Coati can eat all kinds of stuff. “The white-nosed coati is an omnivore and forages mostly on the ground for small vertebrates, fruits, carrion, insects, snakes, and eggs.” In other words, anything it can get its grubby paws on. Including our bananas. And our compost.
What eats them?
They actually have a lot of predators, including big cats, snakes, and raptors:
Coati predators include jaguarundis, anacondas, pumas, maned wolves, boa constrictors, foxes, dogs, tayras, ocelots, and jaguars. Large raptors, such as ornate hawk-eagles, black-and-chestnut eagles, and harpy eagles, also are known to hunt them. White-headed capuchin monkeys hunt their pups. Wikipedia
What other animals are they related to?
This is actually a rather interesting topic: apparently until recently coatis were considered to be most closely related to raccoons, but genetic studies have caused this to be revised; they are now one step closer to nutty little guys called olingos.
If you play video of them in reverse do they turn into Brontosauri?
Yes, yes they do.