Olingo species overlooked by scientists for a century

Scientists have discovered a new species of carnivore, which has had a mistaken identity for more than 100 years.

The olinguito – scientifically known as the Bassaricyon neblina – has taken about a decade to discover during a project that looked at several species of olingo.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums and research centres, wanted to decipher exactly how many olingo species should be recognised and how they are distributed.

The team closely examined more than 95 per cent of the world's olingo specimens in museums, along with DNA testing and the review of historic field data.

Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and leader of the study, eventually came across an olingo species that had smaller teeth and skull than any other.

Upon further examination, the species also had an overall longer and denser coat.

From museum cabinets in Chicago, to cloud forests in South America and genetics labs in Washington DC, the first carnivore species to have been discovered in the American continents for 35 years was found.

Named the olinguito, the scientists reported that the new species looks like a cross between a domestic cat and a teddy bear. They have large eyes, wooly orange-brown fur and generally weigh just less than a kilo (two pounds).

The olinguito is native to a unique area of the northern Andes Mountains, thousands of feet above sea level – a very different habitat to other known species of olingo.

"The cloud forests of the Andes are a world unto themselves, filled with many species found nowhere else, many of them threatened or endangered," commented Helgen.

"We hope that the olinguito can serve as an ambassador species for the cloud forests of Equador and Colombia, to bring the world's attention to these critical habitats."

Olingos belong to the Procyonidae family of carnivores, along with raccoons, coatis and kinkajous.

Image courtesy of Mark Gurney/Smithsonian Institute