Animal Spotlight: The Coati

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 And next, lets take a look at today's "Animal Spotlight:" The Coati!

The coati is a creature of many names.  Often called the Brazilian aardvark, they are also called crackoons (pronounced like "raccoon") and (my personal favorite) "snookum bears."  The coati shares much in common with the red panda, one of the Animal Spotlights from earlier in the week.  It, like the red panda, is not a bear, despite what its nicknames imply, and is also a part of the superfamily "Musteloidea." 

The coati has a plantigrade stance, much like humans, bears, and its relative, the raccoon.  Look at the picture below.  See how the squirrel has the whole portion of its foot on the ground, while the dog has only part of its foot on the ground?  If you were to walk on the balls of your feet, then you would essentially be walking with a digitigrade stance as well. 

There are four species of coati.  Two of them have been labeled as "Least Concern" by the IUCN, but two of them have not been studied enough to formulate a conclusion as to their status in the wild.  That doesn't bode well, however.  Together, they live in the North American countries of the United States (Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), Mexico, throughout Central America, and in the South American countries of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, just to name a few. 

Finally, here is a link to an interesting and amusing news article talking about wild animals running around in the UK.  Enjoy! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10365422