White nosed Coati family in the woods

This is a larger view of the same photo that I showed yesterday. Yesterday I showed a cropped version of just the baby on the rock in the center. He was the focus of my photo.

But look above him and to the left. It will help if you enlarge the photo. You can see part of his much larger mother. The mother's head is patially hidden behind the tree, but she is looking back at me and her baby. There is also an animal darting away at the left edge of the photo.

We saw about 15 coatis running across the road in front of our vehicle, so I stopped and hopped out to try to get their picture. They were scurrying about and quickly disappearing into the jungle. I did not have enough time to frame my photos well, and in my haste to get a photo of the baby coati, I did not even see the mother. I apologize for not getting a good photo of his mother.

How do I know that the large coati nearby was the baby's mother and not the father? Coatis are raised by their mothers, without participation of their fathers. They are born in nests in trees in litters of 1 to 5. Female coatis travel in groups. Coatis are 45 - 70 cm long (18 - 27 in.), plus a long bushy tail that they usually hold upright when they walk.

The term coatimundi is sometimes incorrectly used. It is not a synonym for coati. Coati is an indigenous word for the species. Coatimundi was the indigenous term to refer to a male coati traveling alone.