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Updated: June 1, 2025


Some writers class the coati with the civets, but the creature has far more of the habits and appearance of a badger than of a civet cat; and therefore, whatever the anatomists may say, we shall consider the coati a badger. But a truer form of the badger than either of the above, exists in South America extending over nearly the whole of that continent.

They feed on all small mammals, birds, and reptiles, and even on some large ones; they kill iguanas; Cherrie saw a rattling chase through the trees, a coati following an iguana at full speed. We heard the rush of a couple of tapirs, as they broke away in the jungle in front of the dogs and headed, according to their custom, for the river; but we never saw them.

For convenience, therefore, let us class him in this group: he will certainly be more at home in it than among the bears where most of the naturalists have placed him. In South America we find another form of badger in the Coati mondi, of which there are several varieties; and there, too, the racoon appears of a species distinct from those of the north.

Reading, mending, sleeping, with occasional excursions into the bush, with the dogs, in search of coati, hares, and rabbits, or to encounter a rattlesnake, and now and then a visit to the Presidio, filled up our spare time after hide-curing was over for the day. Another amusement, which we sometimes indulged in, was "burning the water" for craw-fish.

The coati, of which I have before spoken, a sort of mixture of the fox and wolf breeds, fierce little animals, with bushy tails and large heads, and a quick, sharp bark, abound here, as in all other parts of California. These, the dogs were very watchful for, and whenever they saw them, started off in full run after them.

And even now, a hundred years later, most books state that they migrate annually to Ternate, Banda, and Amboyna; whereas the fact is, that they are as completely unknown in those islands in a wild state as they are in England. These are now all known in the Malay Archipelago as "Burong coati," or dead birds, indicating that the Malay traders never saw them alive.

This was relieved by the noisy coati, some of which came quite near to my quarters, and were not very pleasant neighbors. The next morning, before sunrise, the long-boat came ashore, and the hides were taken off. We lay at San Pedro about a week, engaged in taking off hides and in other labors, which had now become our regular duties.

Beside the coati, the dogs sometimes made prizes of rabbits and hares, which are very plentiful here, and great numbers of which we often shot for our dinners. There was another animal that I was not so much disposed to find amusement from, and that was the rattlesnake. These are very abundant here, especially during the spring of the year.

One was the agouti, looking like a large rat and inhabiting the forests; another the coati, similar to the squirrel and easily domesticated. It is possible, too, that reference was made to the solenodon or almiqui, an animal long thought to be extinct but of which several specimens have recently been found in Santo Domingo.

Near the Amazon the traveler Castelnau saw an enormous Coati monkey belonging to an Indian woman and tried to purchase it; though he offered a large sum, the woman only laughed. "Your efforts are useless," remarked an Indian in the same cabin, "he is her husband." In some cases women, and also men, find gratification in the sexual manipulation of animals without any kind of congress.

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