Kinkajou

I love searching for rare animals and share their facts with you guys.

The other day I came across the kinkajou.

The kinkajou is also called honey bear, but they are not bears.

These beautiful creatures are native to Central America and some parts of South America.

They are unusual members of the raccoon family characterized by a long tail, prehensile tail, short muzzle, and low-set, rounded ears.

Although they are related to raccoons, their behavior, appearance, and ecology resemble those of a primate.

Kinkajous eat mostly fruit.

They use their long tongue to slurp up the inside of fruit, nectar from flowers and honey from beehives (that’s where their nickname honey bear comes from).

How much do you know about the maned wolf?

A few days ago, I came across a picture of an animal I had never seen before.

Being a curious person and having a duty to share animal news with you, I searched for this stunning animal and found out some interesting facts.

Maned wolves are the largest canid of South America.

They are found in the wet grasslands of Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

Their long legs are an adaptation to their tall grass habitat.

Despite the name, these mammals are not wolves, they are distant cousins of domesticated dogs, and foxes.

The size of these beautiful animals can be intimidating and for years maned wolves were hunted and killed by farmers because they believed that they were killing their poultry and livestock.

The truth is that the maned wolves’ small teeth and jaws make it hard for them to kill large prey.

Maned wolves are very shy, they only attack humans when they feel threatened.

Sadly, maned wolves are classified as near threatened.

One curiosity I found on Mental Floss is that their pee smells like marijuana.

Ili Pika

The Ili Pika is a species of mammal endemic to northwest China.

After their discovery in 1983, they were not documented again until 2014.

Sadly, their population is declining, likely due to the effects of climate change.

These beautiful creatures are currently considered to be endangered, with approximately less than 1,000 left.

Conservationist Li Weidong said: "This tiny species could be extinct any time. They don't exist in the sites where they used to be anymore."