Mammal Guide -- Tropical Forest

This arboreal species, also known as the honey bear (a reference to its golden fur, not to its taste for honey), has a prehensile tail like the binturong.

An agile climber, it uses its tail as a fifth limb, freeing up its hands to hold food items.

It spends most of its days sleeping or resting inside a hollow tree, coming out only at night to forage.

Its diet consists of insects, small vertebrates such as birds, fruit, and nectar, which it laps up with its long tongue.

When the kinkajou is attacked, it fights back, grasping the predator with its limbs and tail and repeatedly biting with its strong canines.

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Animal Facts

Name: Kinkajou (Potos flavus)

Family: Procyonidae (Raccoons and Relatives)

Range: Southern Mexico to Brazil

Habitat: All types of tropical forests, wet and dry

Diet: Fruit, flowers, honey, leaves, grubs, insects, and small vertebrates

Head and Body Length: 16 to 22 inches (41 to 57 cm)

Tail Length: 16 to 22 inches (40 to 56 cm)

Weight: 4 to 10 pounds (2 to 5 kg)

Life Cycle: Mating throughout year; gestation 112 to 118 days, one (rarely two) young born

Description: Honey-gold to gray, woolly fur; large, brown eyes; long, thin tongue; small, rounded ears; strong prehensile tail; powerful grasping feet

Conservation Status: Not listed by the IUCN.