Kinkajou
A rainforest animal with a prehensile tail it uses as a fifth limb and a long tongue for nectar. Nocturnal, and it lives high up rather than on the floor.
Photo by Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY 4.0
Overview
The kinkajou is the animal on this shelf most likely to outlive the plan somebody made for it. In captivity they commonly reach 20 to 40 years, and 40 has been recorded, which is longer than most dogs and cats put together.
It is a rainforest animal built for the canopy: 2 to 4.6 kilos, 82 to 133 centimetres from nose to tail tip, with a fully prehensile tail it uses as a fifth limb and a long extensible tongue for nectar. It is strictly nocturnal and strictly arboreal. Figs can make up as much as half the diet, with other fruit, flowers, nectar and insects filling the rest.
Temperament
Awake when you are not, and that is the whole shape of it. A kinkajou is active at night and sleeps through the day, and a household that wakes one up repeatedly gets a stressed animal that bites.
They are strong for their size and quick, and they can be affectionate with one keeper and sharp with everyone else. The pet trade is named as a driver of human predation on wild kinkajous, so where an animal came from is a real question and not a formality.
Care and grooming
Fruit first, with nectar and some insects. Figs are the wild staple and a captive diet built only on sweet supermarket fruit is short on nearly everything else, so it needs planning rather than a fruit bowl.
Teeth and gut both suffer on the wrong diet, and a kinkajou needs a vet with exotic experience. Nothing about routine cat or dog care maps cleanly onto an animal that eats nectar.
Living and exercise
Vertical, and bigger than you think. This is a canopy animal with a tail built for hanging, so it needs height, branches it can move along and a nest box near the top to sleep in through the day.
A nocturnal animal also needs the room dark and quiet during daylight, which is difficult in a family home and is the practical constraint most people meet first. Ownership is regulated and the rules differ by state.
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