It looks like this.
The new species of mammal — the first in more than three decades — “looks kind of like a fuzzball … kind of like a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat,” according to an announcement yesterday at the Smithsonian Institution.
Olinguitos were originally thought to be a subspecies of the olingo, but there were issues:
One captured olinguito puzzled zookeepers because it refused to breed or mingle with other olingos.
“They thought it was just a fussy olingo, but turns out it was completely the wrong species,” Helgen said.
Home is Central and South America, although one named Ringerl has been living in the National Zoo, “hiding in plain sight for a long time” as an olingo.
Olinguito, in Spanish, means “little, adorable olingo.” Four subspecies of olinguito, now the smallest species in the racoon family, have been confirmed.
It eats small fruit, such as figs, but is a carnivore and tops out around two pounds.
And from another angle it looks like this:
