Researchers carrying out baseline research at Rainforest Concern’s Neblina Reserve in the cloud forest of north west Ecuador made an exciting sighting last month. Their night-time investigations revealed the presence of an olinguito – a mammal unknown to science until 2013.
Olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) are found only in remote mountainous regions of tropical montane rainforests (or cloud forests) on the northern slopes of the Colombian and Ecuadorian Andes. They are nocturnal and spend their lives in the treetops where they are often obscured by a layer of cloud and fog.