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prettygoodwordolingo (oh-LING-goh) - n., any of a few nocturnal tropical arboreal mammals (genus Bassaricyon) with grayish to yellowish brown fur, a long faintly ringed tail, large eyes, and pointed snout.
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Closely resembling and often mistaken for a kinkajou, but an olingo's tail is not prehensile nor its tongue nearly as long, and in fact olingo(s) are most closely related to coatis. I'm cagey about that plurality because there's ongoing disputes over how many species/subspecies of olingos there are, with arguments being made for between 1 and 5. The name is also uncertain: it's from Latin American Spanish, but it's apparently a misapplication by a naturalist working in Panama of a word that's actually from Honduran Spanish, meaning howler monkey.
---L.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Closely resembling and often mistaken for a kinkajou, but an olingo's tail is not prehensile nor its tongue nearly as long, and in fact olingo(s) are most closely related to coatis. I'm cagey about that plurality because there's ongoing disputes over how many species/subspecies of olingos there are, with arguments being made for between 1 and 5. The name is also uncertain: it's from Latin American Spanish, but it's apparently a misapplication by a naturalist working in Panama of a word that's actually from Honduran Spanish, meaning howler monkey.
---L.
