Discover Top Posts Tagged with #dwarf coati

Got to witness a woefully unsuccessful attempt at catching Little Lord Fungus today due to The Swarm™️

I hope they managed to get him after I left so he could go to the vet

#raccoon tag #raccoons #pygmy raccoon #dwarf coati #my research

do the dwarf coatis hang out a lot with the pygmy raccoons in cozumel? would they do that in the wild if they weren't both (I'm assuming it's the same or a similar situation with the coatis) so habituated? it's very funny to see them hanging out together in the pictures you've shared, but I'm curious as to what their relationship currently is and what it's supposed to be like.

I have like 20 asks about their relationship dynamics!!

So in short, no, they are not friends. However, the raccoon/coati relationship dynamic depends on their sex and resource availability.

Both raccoons and coatis make terrible fathers, and if they are around females, all they really want to do is mate. So for that reason the females don’t want males of their own species hanging around. Coatis are very social animals, with groups (what is the collective of coatis? Idk I’m gonna go with cliques, I feel like it fits) that contain up to 20 individuals. They are led by a queen/alpha/girlboss who has babies of her own, and then 1-3 other females with their babies. Raccoons, however, are not very social. Their groups are generally just the mom and her offspring (though the offspring may be from two different litters, one older and one younger.) But either way, neither female raccoons nor female coatis want adult males around. So that is where the raccoon/coatis dynamic comes in.

Here is a video of a clique of coatis

And here is a family of raccoons

This is an actual example of self domestication, which has NOTHING TO DO WITH BECOMING PETS. Actual self domestication has to do with lowering aggression with their own or similar species in order to get their needs met. For example, if all the food is being placed in one area, and there is plenty to go around, it is going to be more effective to be polite to others rather than risk injury from fighting. Bonobos are one example of self domestication, actually.

Anyway, back to the raccoons and coati. At these beach clubs, there is plenty of food to go around. If everyone stands up and begs, everyone is going to get fed. There is no need to fight over resources. Because of this, you will often find coatis and raccoons hanging out together, because they all want the same resources.

You are generally going to find adult male raccoons hanging out with adult male coatis, as the neither the female raccoons nor coatis (typically) want adult male raccoons around. And you aren’t going to see two families of raccoons hanging out together without being violent to one another, because raccoon mamas will bully kits that aren’t their own, and the moms of the babies will come and attack the other moms. But you may also find adult male coatis hanging out with adult females (so long as her babies are older and he isn’t messing with them), and families of raccoons and coatis living side by side and all coming out for food at the same time in places where they are highly habituated.

Anyway, once again for anyone who missed it THIS DOES NOT MEAN RACCOONS AND COATIS ARE BECOMING DOMESTIC ANIMALS OR PETS

Ok, enjoy some more raccoon/coati dynamics

A clique of coati and a family of raccoons (One mother, two subadult babies, and a daughter who is way too old to be with her mom but has a sweet deal with all the food) together to all beg for food

A baby dwarf coati the size of a bug with a subadult male raccoon. The baby got separated from its family, but generally if they follow a raccoon, they will find food and their family won’t be far. This is safe because pygmy raccoons typically don’t attack baby coatis as there is no need to. A common raccoon, however, would absolutely eat one.

A subadult male raccoon and a male coati sitting on a log in the shade. It’s a nice log and it does not hurt to share.

A female coati leaving the den she shares with the raccoon family when she needs to relax during the day. Her clique is calling her, but she is distracted by a subadult male raccoon (right) getting rejected by his mother (left).

An adult male coati (Tony) sharing a pile of tortilla chips with a subadult male raccoon (Oedipus) after the coati clique went home for the day and Oedipus’s mom rejected him and went off with an adult male she was not related to. This is a separate day from the above image.

#raccoons #pygmy raccoon #coati #dwarf coati #raccoon tag #endangered species #my research #long post