Becky Radisch, age 12, of Kernersville, North Carolina, for her question:
What sort of animal is a kinkaJou?
When you see a kinkajou for the first time, he reminds you of a furry pussy cat and a long tailed monkey with a puppy dog face. But he is not related to any of these animals. His family includes the raccoon and the giant panda. His native home is in the tall treetops of Central and South America. There he performs the most remarkable acrobatic antics and rarely ever visits the forest floor.
Pet shops may sell the kinkajou as a honey bear. Certainly the furry little acrobat is not a bear. But his thick silky coat is the color of golden honey and those who know him report that sweet honeybee honey is his favorite dessert. In parts of Mexico, they call him the monkey lion. This must be because he has a lion colored coat and looks somewhat like a pretty, long tailed monkey. Certainly, the gentle little character never attacks monkeys like a hungry lion.
The average kinkajou is about six pounds worth of silken fur and supple muscles. His legs are short and his nails are sharp. His body is about one foot long and his most remarkable feature is a furry 18 inch tail. It is a prehensile tail and he uses it as a fifth hand to perform his acrobatic antics.
The kinkajou has a puppy like face with small ears set towards the sides of his head. His large eyes have the hazy gaze of most smallish nocturnal mammals. In his jungle treetops, from Central America southward to Brazil, the frisky fellow is busy by night. When morning comes, he curls up like a kitten in a hollow tree or in a hammock of tangled vines.
After sunset, he usually joins a troop of friends and relatives and off they frolic in search of food and fun. He does not leap monkey style from bough to bough. His prehensile tail holds tight until his sturdy legs and claws have a good grip on the next branch.
People say that when a kinkajou holds on with his tail and his four feet, not even a hurricane could shake him out of his tree.
To some extent, he eats meat such as insects, birds and small rodents. But his favorite food is definitely fruit and he is happiest when dining with friends in a fig tree. Then, with tail wound securely around a bough, he holds a ripe fig in his dainty hands and uses his mobile, six inch tongue to scoop out the pulp.
The female kinkajou bears one or two blind babes, wearing black, furry coats. She tends them in the treetops, often carrying them in her mouth by the scruff of the neck. After about ten days the babies open their eyes and when seven weeks old they can awing by their remarkable kinkajou tails. Barring accidents, they can expect to live 20 years or more.
When adopted, a pet kinkajou gives up his night time activities and stays awake during the day. He is gentle, loving and almost always well behaved. He politely accepts apples and oranges, grapes and bananas, carrots and bread, raw and cooked meat plus a wide range of other foods. Between nibbles, he never tires of performing his agile acrobatics and certainly his human friends never tire of watching the cute little charmer.