Details
Nasua nasua
A South American procyonid of forests and savannas, with a long mobile snout and banded tail. It often forages by day in social groups.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
South American coatis use tropical forest, dry forest, savanna, and wooded grassland edges. They combine arboreal resting sites with terrestrial foraging.
They have an elongated snout, brown coat, and long ringed tail. The tail is often carried upright and helps group members keep visual contact.
Females and young form bands, while adult males are often solitary. Groups forage by day, probing soil, logs, and leaf litter.
They eat fruits, insects, spiders, larvae, eggs, and small vertebrates. The flexible nose is used to search soil and litter for food.
Males join female bands during the breeding season. Females give birth in tree or vegetation nests and later rejoin the group with young.
In tourist areas, coatis may become habituated to human food. Feeding them increases bite risk and can harm natural foraging behavior.
