Olinguito named as new species

The world's newest species, the olinguito, is the smallest member of the raccoon family and has thick, woolly fur, according to the Smithsonian Institute.

Here are some more facts about the olinguito:

Diet: The animal mainly eats fruit, but may also eat some insects and nectar.

Behaviour: Olinguitos are solitary animals that live in trees and are mostly nocturnal. It is an adept jumper that can leap from tree to tree in the forest canopy. Mothers raise a single baby at a time.

Habitat: It is found only in cloud forests of the northern Andes Mountains.

Range: They live in Ecuador and Colombia around 5,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level.

The newly-named olinguito has become the first New World carnivore to be identified in 35 years.

For more than a century the olinguito, also known as Bassaricyon neblina, was mistaken for its larger close cousin the olingo.

But following a 10 year research project examining the skull, teeth and skin of museum specimens and tracking the animals in the wild, scientists at the Smithsonian Institute confirmed it is a different species.

Read: Woolly-furred olinguito named a new species

An animal that resembles "a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear" has been named as a new species after being wrongly identified for more than 100 years.

The woolly-furred olinguito, which weighs 2lb (0.9kg), is related to raccoons and coatis and lives in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, the Smithsonian Institute announced today.