Researchers announced Thursday a rare discovery of a new species of mammal called the Olinguito. The reddish-brown animal is about 14-inches long with an equally long tail and weighs about 2 pounds.
It belongs to a grouping of large creatures that include dogs, cats and bears.
But the adorable Olinguito (Oh-lihn-GEE'-toe) shouldn't have been so hard to find. One of them once lived in the Smithsonian-run National Zoo in Washington for a year in a case of mistaken identity.
The little zoo critter, named Ringerl, was mistaken for a sister species, the Olingo. Before she died in 1976, Ringerl was shipped from zoo to zoo to try to get it to breed with other Olingos. She wouldn't, because she was from a different species.
It's hard to figure how Olingos and Onlinguitos were confused for each other.
Olinguitos are smaller, have shorter tails, a rounder face, tinier ears and darker bushier fur. It eats fruit and has one baby at a time.
Outside experts said this discovery is not merely renaming something, but a genuine new species — with three new subspecies. It's the type of significant find that hasn't happened in the Americas for about 35 years.
The Olinguito is the smallest member of the raccoon family of mammals.
The researchers only saw Olinguitos in Ecuador and Colombia, but they said they could also be living in parts of Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, and Guyana, based on their cloud forest habitat.