Olinguito, a new carnivorous mammal

His name is olinguito, it inhabits the fog forests  of Colombia and Ecuador and has become the protagonist of an important scientific discovery for being  the newest species of Carnivores that has been identified in the Western hemisphere in 35 years.

This new member of the family of carnivores looks like a mixture of domestic cat and plush bear, and according to scientists belongs to the family of the Proyonidae, the same as the raccoons, coatis, Kinkajous and olingos.

“The discovery of the olinguito reminds us that the world has not yet been explored and some of its most basic secrets haven’t been revealed yet,” said the curator of mammals at the National Museum of Natural history of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, Kristofer Helgen.

 During the investigation it was also found that the olinguito still lives in a unique area of the Northern Andes, at heights of 1 500 to 2 700 meters above the sea level, much higher than the habitat of the olingo species.