Trouble Has Arrived

Trouble, in the fuzzy form of a Snookum Bear, has arrived in our Cerro Azul yard. He made his first appearance (to us) a little before 7:00 AM on November 2nd. We feel he's been here before, during the nighttime, since any banana chunks left by the birds at the end of the day do disappear by morning. It was foggy and not at all bright this morning, so maybe it was his last stop before retiring for the day.

He was undisturbed by our presence, casual, curious, and probably would have walked into the house if we hadn't been blocking the doorway. He patrolled the southeast side of the yard for about 15 or 20 minutes, often down the slope a bit, where his body was out of sight but we could still see his tail waving merrily along. Les finally banished him (temporarily, no doubt) by banging a shovel against a tree.

We like Coatis fine, but really do want the bananas to go to the birds (and maybe some to the Geoffrey's Tamarins, if they find us.)

Les got some video of the little bandit before chasing him off.

Note the coati's highly developed sense of smell. They can move their snouts around very expressively. This is a large, healthy-looking male. He's solitary, so at least two years old, since the females in the troop shoo them away outside of the breeding season. He holds his non-prehensile tail high showing his rights to the territory. But, that may not work for us in the house.