The Olinguito, a small, furry, cat-like mammal, has been around and seen by civilians, even put in museums and zoos for decades, but had been confused as a similar species, the Olingo, which are smaller and have less fur. The Olinguito was 'discovered,' or rather uncovered to not be an olingo by a group of researchers doing extensive studies on the olingo when they found the differences between the two and processed its DNA and thus, the Olinguito, also known as Bassaricyon Neblina.
Personally, I find it ridiculous that highly trained scientists and animal caretakers could have missed this for so long, even with modern technology, DNA processing, and it was in museums and even zoos.
What do you guys think?
Olinguito:
CNN Story: Here
Replies
With all the advancements we have in science today it's crazy that we haven't discovered this. I mean this animal has been sitting in our zoos for years. I feel like they would have noticed it weeks ago. But atleast now is better than never.
It's really weird how no one had thought to look closer at this animal. I mean, don't we go into depth when we study animals? It seems like scientists are usually good about studying everything.
I also agree that it was ridiculous that they have mistaken the Bassaricyon Neblina for another animal. They may look the same, but then again, these are highly trained scientists and they should have known that they were not the Olingo.
I think that that is kind of weird. Like if its been in so many places then why didn't they figure that out earlier? And if they were highly trained then why didn't they know that it was an Olinguito?
I do agree with you it is ridiculous, how if the had this animal in with the animal that they thought it was they should have noticed that there was some difference between them. How they eat or look or even there action. But it's good that they finally found out the two animals were different and now know that the animal is a mammal.
That's insane that they haven't found out that it wasn't an Olingo i mean it has been in zoos and has been seen by tons of people and they just now figured out that it was actually a different species. I would probably understand it if they had not even seen the creature before or if it was a rare creature but an animal that they keep at zoos it's just amazing.
It is surprising that they did not find out sooner, but it must be very small differences if it took highly trained scientist extensive research to find.
Scientists say that we have "discovered" less than 50% of all the species on this planet, and the majority lie within the Amazonian Rain Forest.
On topic, I do believe that it could easily be mistaken for something else, so yes, this discovery is somewhat surprising, but not the biggest one so far. I am going to be more surprised once the stats for this specific "breed," such as how Endangered they are.