HOLA, OLINGUITO!

New Mammal Discovered

Looks half cat, half teddy bear.

Smithsonian scientists have discovered a new carnivorous mammal, and it is super cute. Dubbed the olinguito (pronounced “oh-lin-GHEE-toe”), this member of the raccoon family weighs in at two pounds and looks like a squeezable hybrid of a rusty-colored house cat and a teddy bear. Native to Colombia and Ecuador, the olinguito is the first new carnivore species to be found in the Americas in 35 years. “The discovery of the olinguito shows us that the world is not yet completely explored, its most basic secrets not yet revealed,” said Smithsonian curator Kristofer Helgen, who made the discovery after a decade of research and tracking animals in the South American wild.