Coatis Galore: 1898 to Present
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 6th, 2006
Modesto Daily Evening News
Modesto, California
March 4, 1898
A Strange Animal.
One evening this week A. J. Woodson, who lives near Hill’s Ferry, discovered a strange animal in a tree near his place and after quite a lot of trouble succeeded in capturing it. The animal is about the size of an ordinary house cat; has a head very much like a fox; feet with claws similar to a cat, and a ringed tail much longer than its body. No one has seen the animal here could name it, but a reference to the natural history shows a picture of the same animal classified as a “Ring tailed Maki,” and Madagascar and adjacent islands as its home. Doubtless this is one that has escaped at some time from a menagerie. The animal will be sent to the city for sale. — Newman Index.
(This old article was found by Jerome Clark. This capture represents not a lemur from Madagascar, as suggested, but probably an out-of-place coatimundi from the more tropical Americas.)
Coatis have a way of turning up in the strangest places, when you least expect them. One was killed in Nebraska in 1968. Going from 1898 in California, let us fast forward to the first week in August 2006, to Cumbria, to the town of Furness, beyond the Lake District in the United Kingdom.
An entire colony of out-of-place coatis have been sighted there.
Accorrding to the North-west Evening Mail:
They’re a long way from home but it seems a colony of South American coatis may have settled in Furness. A string of sightings culminated in one of the three-foot-long, meat-eating mammals being tranquilliser darted from a tree in a Lindal garden. Householder Rob Hewitt, 64, of Low Farm Close, Lindal, said: “I was sitting in a deckchair in my back garden when this face came round the corner of the house and I thought — you don’t have a UK passport.
“It was as big as a Labrador dog. A big yellow and ginger thing with a bushy tail with rings on it. Like a raccoon, but the wrong colour. It turned round the corner and hissed at me. It wasn’t scared or anything. It climbed on the side of the wall and up on to a wall and it sat there looking at me.”
Rob rang South Lakes Wild Animal Park. But staff there said they had no missing coatis.
Eventually, park owner David Gill had to use a tranquilliser to sedate the animal before he could catch it.
The coati sighting is the latest of several in this area.
One was spotted near the tarn at Great Urswick, another was in the playground of Chetwynde School, Barrow, and a third was seen in Barrow Park.
Coatis have been actively reported in Cumbria since 2005.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Yay, something other than Johor to talk about!
Seriously though, I find it interesting that after spending centuries wiping out all the major predators in Europe and North America, man seems to be busy replacing them, albeit accidentally. All the more ironic when other parts of the world seem intent on following the trend. How strange would it be if tigers are wiped out in their native habitats, only to establish themselves on the moors of Great Britain or the plains of Midwest America? Having stopped the fox hunts, will the Brits now start up Coatimundi chases?
This global shifting of animal populations, whereby creatures that have never met each other (Having been separated by mountains, oceans, and whole continents) are forced into contact, is considered by many scientists to be one of the most profound changes to the course of life on Earth since the K-T extinction. Couple that with the next great extinction that mankind has been steadily working on for centuries, and terrestrial life is clearly in for a bumpy ride.
Interestingly enough we got a picture of something that looks very similar to a coati on one of our game cameras. Had the picture been just a bit clearer we might have had confirmation of the little buggers here in Georgia.
WEll, it makes sense that coatis, like coyote, might have extended (or be extending) their range here in the Americas.
But it’s pretty shocking to think of not only an escaped coati, but a breeding colony of them, in the UK.
Not too different from nutria in Louisiana or foxes and rabbits in Australia though, I don’t suppose.
But as big as a labrador? Do coati get that big in S. America? Maybe it’s just the few represtantives I’ve seen in zoos and on TV were smaller, but that seems pretty large.
You never know!
Wonder if that animal was the inspiration for the “Eugene the Jeep” in the Popeye cartoons. Think that’s what they called him. He had a habit of popping up unexpectedly and dissappearing magically.
BTW, that’s were the name for the vehicle came from as well.
Wayne
Coatis here in the UK.. sweet, I’ll have to go check it out
I happen to know for a fact that those buggers can be found just about anywhere. I’m sure the ones found in Britain had human help, but I live in northern california and I’ve seen one. I’ve also seen what I believe to be a ringed tailed marmot. With their energy and dexterity I can see them being anywhere. No sure if they can swim, and if they can, are they as good as the armadillo. Armadillos have been known to swim the gulf of mexico. I loved the comment by the british person, “…and I thought — you don’t have a UK passport.” Sometimes I really enjoy everyday british humor.
Coatimundis roam into southern Arizona as do jaguars.
I’ve seen two coatimundis high in the Huachuca Mountains at the 6,000 foot level. These mountains are adjacent to Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista. My first sighting I mistook the coatimundi for a small bear until I saw the gigantic tail.