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| An Olinguito Photo courtesy: www.independent.co.uk |
The Olinguito was one of the Top Ten New Species of 2014 and is a mammal that is found in the misty mountains of Ecuador and Western Columbia. While this carnivorous mammal has been spotted multiple times before and even displayed in the zoos of the United States before, people mistook the creature for a common racoon. However, olinguitos are tree-living animals and prefer to habitat stretches of mountains that are 5000-9000 feet high. They just have a single mammary gland and bear a single offspring at in a single gestation.
It actually took an accidental discovery in the museum to get the classification right! Here is the story of the Discovery of Olinguito by Kristofer Helgen and how specimens are maintained and analysed in the museum courtesy of the Shelf Life series from the American Natural History Museum
