A month ago, I had never heard of a Coatimundi until our manager said they had seen a group of them recently on the Preserve. Dan and I had to look them up so we could recognize them. The Coati is raccoon-like, climbs trees, and digs for insects. Everyday, we would walk through the area of the last sighting with hopes of seeing just one. No luck.
The other day, we had some time off from our volunteering and decide to get in our 2-mile walk. Dan spotted the White-nose Coati first. He was on the trail in front of us. He just stood there on the path staring at us. We think this is a male since males travel alone. We did not see or hear any others nearby.
I'm so happy I brought my camera.. Yep, can you believe I almost left it behind for this walk! The rest of my walk would have been banging my head against trees while chanting "Never Ever Leave the Camera Behind!"
Okay, back to my story....After taking some photos, moving closer and taking more, he started moving very slowly down the path. We are not sure if he was being very careful and trying not to alert us or if he just wasn't that worried about us. It almost felt like he was as curious about us as we were about him.
So he would walk a little ways down the trail.......
And he would stop..........strike a pose....
 |
| Great photo of his paws - good for digging and climbing |
 |
| Close-up of his paws |
He looked back and froze again for several seconds.
He turned around the other direction to get a different view? of us again...and froze.
 |
| so cute |
This encounter must have gone on for 10 minutes! It was great! I was so excited about this encounter that I took over 200 photos of him. Don't worry, I don't plan to post all of them.
 |
| Check out his turned-up nose! |
I think this is when he realized we were going to keep following him and he took off running.
Such an adorable face! I hope we see more before we leave here.
