Nasua
Encyclopedia
Nasua is a genus within the Raccoon
family, Procyonidae
. The three species within the genus Nasua are generally referred to as coati
s. Two additional species of coatis, commonly known as mountain coatis, are placed in the genus Nasuella
. Nasua differs from Nasuella in being larger and having larger canine teeth
, but preliminary genetic
evidence suggests Nasuella should be merged into Nasua. Other genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of the coatis are the olingo
s (genus Bassaricyon).
Like other procyonids, coatis are omnivores. Their diet consists largely of insects, insect larvae, spiders and other invertebrates and the occasional small vertebrate discovered while energetically foraging, their sensitive noses to the ground, in forest leaf litter. On Barro Colorado Island
, Panama, where they have been studied in greatest detail, they supplement this diet with copious amounts of fruit as it becomes available seasonally from favored trees such as figs (Ficus insipida
) and hog plums (Spondias mombin
).
Their very active foraging behavior appears to be interrelated with their distinctive social organization. Exceptional among procyonids, coatis are diurnal and for much of the year gregarious. Though females nest, and bear and nurse their young in isolation, shortly after the altricial young become mobile the females aggregate into social groups known as bands. Bands consist of adult females (two or more years old), and sub-adults (1 – 2 years old) and juveniles (< 1 year old) of both sexes. At maturity at two years of age, males are excluded from bands and take up a solitary lifestyle. They are aggressively repelled from bands, except during the mating season when typically one male ingratiates himself to a band through submissive behavior, forages with it for a period of a few weeks, and mates with all of the adult females. During the nesting season, the sub-adults and juveniles remain together in bands while breeding adult females become solitary for parturition and nesting. Females begin breeding in their 3rd or 4th year, apparently depending on nutritional status. Occasionally older females become postreproductive, and these remain with the bands while breeding females separate. Breeding is synchronous, as is parturition and nursing. Resumption of gregarious behavior takes place synchronously as well, over the course of several weeks, depending on the existence of previous social relationships, i.e. females with prior relationships reaggregate into bands more quickly than those forming new relationships. Nonetheless, persistent social bonds may form anew at this point in the reproductive cycle – while there may be a tendency to reaggregate with kin, prior relationships are not indispensable. Previously unfamiliar individuals may aggregate into bands with stable social relationships. A conspicuous means of bond formation is mutual grooming, on which an hour or more may be spent daily. Some of this appears to be ritualized as a form of social bond formation (Fig. 1), though it is clearly mutually beneficial as well – the burden of ticks on band members is lower than it is on solitary adult males, for instance.
When juveniles descend from the nest, they are little better than helpless (Fig. 2). One important benefit of aggregating for the adult females is sharing of vigilance in protection of juveniles from predation. Juvenile mortality is high, sources of peril including adult male coatis which have been observed to kill them. It is not entirely clear whether adult males are preying on them or killing potential rivals, and of course it may be both. The active foraging behavior of coatis is fairly conspicuous, and requires a considerable degree of attention. The proportion of time that adult females spend foraging increases, and the proportion of foraging time interrupted for stationary vigilance behavior decreases, when aggregation into bands is achieved. Bands forage in formation, with adults and sub-adults distributed around the periphery, and juveniles gathered towards the center. This shared vigilance appears to be an important contributor to the benefit of gregariousness for coatis.
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
family, Procyonidae
Procyonidae
Procyonidae is a New World family of the order Carnivora. It includes the raccoons, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, ringtails and cacomistles. Procyonids inhabit a wide range of environments, and are generally omnivorous.-Characteristics:...
. The three species within the genus Nasua are generally referred to as coati
Coati
Coatis, genera Nasua and Nasuella, also known as the Brazilian aardvark, Mexican tejón, hog-nosed coon, pizotes, crackoons and snookum bears, are members of the raccoon family . They are diurnal mammals native to South America, Central America, and south-western North America...
s. Two additional species of coatis, commonly known as mountain coatis, are placed in the genus Nasuella
Nasuella
Mountain coatis are two species of procyonid mammals from the genus Nasuella. Unlike the larger coatis from the genus Nasua, mountain coatis only weigh and are endemic to the north Andean highlands in South America. Until recently only a single species with three subspecies was recognized. In 2009...
. Nasua differs from Nasuella in being larger and having larger canine teeth
Canine tooth
In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dogteeth, fangs, or eye teeth, are relatively long, pointed teeth...
, but preliminary genetic
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
evidence suggests Nasuella should be merged into Nasua. Other genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of the coatis are the olingo
Olingo
Olingos are small procyonids that comprise the genus Bassaricyon, native to the rainforests of Central and South America from Nicaragua to Peru. They are arboreal and nocturnal, and live at elevations from sea level to 2,000 m...
s (genus Bassaricyon).
Like other procyonids, coatis are omnivores. Their diet consists largely of insects, insect larvae, spiders and other invertebrates and the occasional small vertebrate discovered while energetically foraging, their sensitive noses to the ground, in forest leaf litter. On Barro Colorado Island
Barro Colorado Island
Barro Colorado Island is located in the man-made Gatun Lake in the middle of the Panama Canal. The island was formed when the waters of the Chagres River were dammed to form the lake. When the waters rose, they covered a significant part of the existing rainforest, and the hilltops remained as...
, Panama, where they have been studied in greatest detail, they supplement this diet with copious amounts of fruit as it becomes available seasonally from favored trees such as figs (Ficus insipida
Ficus insipida
Ficus insipida is a tropical tree in the fig genus of the family Moraceae. It ranges from Mexico to South America, and is commonly found in cloud forest above 1,550 meters ASL.-Description and ecology:...
) and hog plums (Spondias mombin
Spondias mombin
Spondias mombin is a tree, a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to the tropical Americas, including the West Indies. The tree has been naturalized in parts of Africa, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. It is rarely cultivated.The mature fruit has a leathery skin and a...
).
Their very active foraging behavior appears to be interrelated with their distinctive social organization. Exceptional among procyonids, coatis are diurnal and for much of the year gregarious. Though females nest, and bear and nurse their young in isolation, shortly after the altricial young become mobile the females aggregate into social groups known as bands. Bands consist of adult females (two or more years old), and sub-adults (1 – 2 years old) and juveniles (< 1 year old) of both sexes. At maturity at two years of age, males are excluded from bands and take up a solitary lifestyle. They are aggressively repelled from bands, except during the mating season when typically one male ingratiates himself to a band through submissive behavior, forages with it for a period of a few weeks, and mates with all of the adult females. During the nesting season, the sub-adults and juveniles remain together in bands while breeding adult females become solitary for parturition and nesting. Females begin breeding in their 3rd or 4th year, apparently depending on nutritional status. Occasionally older females become postreproductive, and these remain with the bands while breeding females separate. Breeding is synchronous, as is parturition and nursing. Resumption of gregarious behavior takes place synchronously as well, over the course of several weeks, depending on the existence of previous social relationships, i.e. females with prior relationships reaggregate into bands more quickly than those forming new relationships. Nonetheless, persistent social bonds may form anew at this point in the reproductive cycle – while there may be a tendency to reaggregate with kin, prior relationships are not indispensable. Previously unfamiliar individuals may aggregate into bands with stable social relationships. A conspicuous means of bond formation is mutual grooming, on which an hour or more may be spent daily. Some of this appears to be ritualized as a form of social bond formation (Fig. 1), though it is clearly mutually beneficial as well – the burden of ticks on band members is lower than it is on solitary adult males, for instance.
When juveniles descend from the nest, they are little better than helpless (Fig. 2). One important benefit of aggregating for the adult females is sharing of vigilance in protection of juveniles from predation. Juvenile mortality is high, sources of peril including adult male coatis which have been observed to kill them. It is not entirely clear whether adult males are preying on them or killing potential rivals, and of course it may be both. The active foraging behavior of coatis is fairly conspicuous, and requires a considerable degree of attention. The proportion of time that adult females spend foraging increases, and the proportion of foraging time interrupted for stationary vigilance behavior decreases, when aggregation into bands is achieved. Bands forage in formation, with adults and sub-adults distributed around the periphery, and juveniles gathered towards the center. This shared vigilance appears to be an important contributor to the benefit of gregariousness for coatis.
Species
The three species within Nasua are:- N. narica (Linnaeus, 1766) - White-nosed Coati, Pizote, or Antoon (Southwestern United StatesSouthwestern United StatesThe Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
, MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Central AmericaCentral AmericaCentral America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, ColombiaColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and EcuadorEcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
) - N. nasuaSouth American CoatiThe South American Coati, or Ring-tailed Coati , is a species of coati from South America. In Brazilian Portuguese it is known as quati. It is native to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela. It is the southern replacement of its very...
(Linnaeus, 1766) - South American Coati (South AmericaSouth AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
) - N. noriathis (Mady, 1995) - Range Coati (Serra dos ÓrgãosSerra dos ÓrgãosSerra dos Órgãos is a mountain range in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which was turned into a national park in 1939. It is located about a one-hour drive from the city of Rio de Janeiro....
, BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
) - N. nelsoniCozumel Island CoatiThe Cozumel Island Coati is a coati from the Mexican island of Cozumel. It is in the family Procyonidae, which also includes raccoons, olingos, and Kinkajous....
MerriamClinton Hart MerriamClinton Hart Merriam was an American zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist and ethnographer.Known as "Hart" to his friends, Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam was born in New York City in 1855. His father, Clinton Levi Merriam, was a U.S. congressman. He studied biology and anatomy at Yale University and...
, 1901 - Cozumel Island Coati (CozumelCozumelCozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
, MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
)