A coati of South American forests, with an elongated flexible snout and a long ringed tail.
The coat may be brown, gray or reddish, with pale markings around the eyes. Its long tail helps it balance.
South American coati scats contained human refuse alongside fruit seeds and insect fragments. A study in three Brazilian parks found paper, string and plastic, as well as aluminium and glass fragments. Garbage from places used by people was entering the meals of animals that also searched for forest foods.
The paper, appearing in a 2022 journal issue, examined 62 scats collected in Minas Gerais from May to September 2012 and March to September 2013. Researchers washed the material through sieves of different mesh sizes and examined the remains under magnification. Paper occurred in half of 22 samples from Mangabeiras Municipal Park, while plastic occurred in six of 35 samples from Caparaó National Park. Paper and string also appeared among five samples from Água Limpa Ecological Station, where public access was restricted largely to education and research. Traces of refuse ingestion occurred both at tourist sites and at a site with more restricted human activity.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The three-park study recommends combining barriers that prevent coatis from reaching garbage with protection of places supplying natural foods. It specifically proposes improving waste storage and disposal, educating visitors, monitoring coati health regularly and establishing continuing ecological research. These proposals connect evidence of ingested refuse with preventive management.