The olinguito is distinct from the other species within the genus, popularly known as "olingos", and also from the kinkajou. Its average weight is, making it the smallest procyonid. The animal is an omnivorousfrugivore that eats mainly fruits, but also insects and nectar; this diet results in feces the size of small blueberries. The olinguito is thought to be solitary, nocturnal and moderately reclusive. Olinguitos appear to be strictly arboreal. They have a single pair of mammae, and probably produce a single offspring at a time.
of the species have been identified from the Andean cloud forest stretching from western Colombia to Ecuador, at elevations of 5,000 to 9,000 feet, which is the highest known range of any member of the genus Bassaricyon. Its discovery was confirmed in the wild and announced on 15 August 2013. The species is not considered to be immediately at risk, but it is estimated that over 40 percent of the animal's potential range has been deforested.
Discovery
Its discovery was announced on 15 August 2013 by Kristofer Helgen, the curator of mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, olingo expert Roland Kays of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and collaborators. Helgen discovered specimens of the species in storage at The Field Museum in Chicago and used DNA testing to confirm a new species. The researchers who identified the species were unable to discover any local names specific to it. The discovery was the first identification of a new mammal species of the orderCarnivora in the Americas in 35 years. Olinguitos were regularly seen and even publicly exhibited decades before they were recognized as members of a new species. The animal had previously been confused with its taxonomic cousins, the olingos. One such example was Ringerl, an olinguito who lived in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for a year and also toured many other zoos. Researchers unsuccessfully tried to breed her with olingos, not realizing she was a different species. Ringerl died in 1976.
Taxonomic evaluation
The olinguito is smaller than the other species in the genus Bassaricyon. Its body is approximately long, and its tail long. It is also much furrier and has a shorter tail and smaller ears than others that share its genus. The olinguito is found in the northern Andes at altitudes between above sea level, which is much higher than the habitats for other olingos. Based on morphological distinctions, four olinguito subspecies have been described: the nominateBassaricyon neblina neblina, and B. n. osborni, B. n. hershkovitzi, and B. n. ruber. Each of these subspecies, though, were found to have a dental formula characteristic of other members of the family Procyonidae. Comparison of DNA from two olinguito subspecies to other olingo and related species was carried out on the basis of genetic dissimilarity derived from Kimura modeling of differences in base-pair composition of mitochondrial cytochrome b. The genetic divergence between olinguitos and other olingos makes olinguitos a basalsister lineage to the rest of the genus, and is equivalent to differences between species which have been assigned to separate subgenera or genera. This split apparently occurred about 3.5 million years ago, suggesting that the earliest diversification of the genus took place in northwestern South America shortly after the ancestors of olingos first invaded the continent from Central America as part of the Great American Interchange.
Conservation
The olinguito may be at risk in the future due to deforestation and urbanization. Since the natural habitat of the olinguito is at higher elevations, this means that its "cloud forest habitat" definitely needs to be protected in order to optimize this species' probability of survival. As of now, no strict efforts are known to be in place in order to reduce habitat destruction.
