Nasuella olivacea

The western mountain coati, also called the western dwarf coati, is a small member of the raccoon family (Procyonidae) found in cloud forest and paramo habitat in the northern Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. It lives at altitudes of roughly 1,300 to 4,250 metres. A population in the Apurimac and Cuzco region of southern Peru, more than 1,000 kilometres south of the previously known range, has tentatively been identified as this species, but it may represent an undescribed taxon. Until 2009 the animal was usually called simply the mountain coati and was treated as including the eastern mountain coati as a subspecies. The eastern form is overall smaller, somewhat shorter tailed, has markedly smaller teeth and a paler olive-brown coat, which led to the split. The western mountain coati is considered Near Threatened by the IUCN, while the combined species had earlier been rated Data Deficient. Two subspecies are recognised: Nasuella olivacea olivacea from Colombia and the slightly smaller, darker N. o. quitensis from Ecuador, with the boundary between them unknown. After a genetic analysis in 2020 the American Society of Mammalogists regards N. meridensis as a synonym of N. olivacea.