Meet Olinguito the new mammalian carnivore

[Greg Bernhardt]

Olinguito: 'Overlooked' mammal carnivore is major discovery
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23701151

Scientists in the US have discovered a new animal living in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador.

It has been named olinguito and is the first new species of carnivore to be identified in the Western hemisphere in 35 years.

It has taken more than a decade to identify the mammal, a discovery that scientists say is incredibly rare in the 21st Century.

 

[parkerjm]

"Olinguito: 'Overlooked' mammal carnivore is major discovery"
"mammal carnivore is major discovery"
"mammal carnivore"
"carnivore"

"Eats fruit mainly, but also consumes insects and nectar"
"Eats fruit mainly"
"fruit mainly"

Carnivore: "A carnivore is an animal that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue"
"mainly animal tissue"

...?

 

[atyy]

"Olinguito: 'Overlooked' mammal carnivore is major discovery"
"mammal carnivore is major discovery"
"mammal carnivore"
"carnivore"

"Eats fruit mainly, but also consumes insects and nectar"
"Eats fruit mainly"
"fruit mainly"

Carnivore: "A carnivore is an animal that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue"
"mainly animal tissue"

...?

I think it is Anglicization of a technical term. http://tolweb.org/Carnivora/15971 says the giant panda is in "Carnivora". It also says the vernacular name for "Carnivora" is "carnivores".

The BBC article qoutes Kristofer Helgen, "The olinguito is a carnivore - that group of mammals that includes cats, dogs and bears and their relatives. Many of us believed that list was complete, but this is a new carnivore - the first to be found on the American continent for more than three decades."

 

[parkerjm]

I figured the BBC would be using the popular meaning of the word instead of the stricter meaning, but that makes a lot more sense!

 

[atyy]

There's a poll on "Is the olinguito the cutest animal in the world?" at http://www.nbcnews.com/science/cutest-new-animal-discovered-its-olinguito-6C10925572. Now I need to find out what the slow slow loris is!

 

[Evo]

It *is* cute, but many mammals are cuter.

 

[phinds]

It *is* cute, but many mammals are cuter.

I agree. I'm a mammal. You do the math

 

[epenguin]

"Scientists in the US have discovered a new animal living in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador" is hardly accurate.

They hope one will be found living, I'm sure we all do. The have discovered one that did live there.

 

[atyy]

"Scientists in the US have discovered a new animal living in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador" is hardly accurate.

They hope one will be found living, I'm sure we all do. The have discovered one that did live there.

I think they did find one, at least that's how I read the news report. At the end they did make a trip to look for it.

 

[jim mcnamara]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassaricyon

I've seen olingos and kinkajous when doing field research long ago. The olinguito looks really very much like the olingo.

Anyway the article above says that Helgen did in fact discover the species in the wild, in 2006, just published this week.

 

[atyy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassaricyon

I've seen olingos and kinkajous when doing field research long ago. The olinguito looks really very much like the olingo.

Anyway the article above says that Helgen did in fact discover the species in the wild, in 2006, just published this week.

But is the olinguito cuter than the others? From Helgen's range data, is it possible you might have seen it on your field work long ago?

 

[epenguin]

I think they did find one, at least that's how I read the news report. At the end they did make a trip to look for it.

OK right, I was mistaken, just if you read the article without seeing the video which I did you could think they have only seen the museum specimen, and even the video is mostly about that.