Common image of a coati walking on one of the railings of the Iguazú National Park on the brazilian side, falls can be seen at the backdrop.

As you walk along the Iguazu Falls Park trails,

you can be sure to meet some coati, these mammals the size of a large domestic cat are relatives to racoons and therefore are omnivorous too. Unlike racoons, who have nighttime habits, the coati the tend to roam looking for food during the day and sleep at night on tree branches with their pointed noses stuck into their belies. They are native to America and can be found in moist tropical rainforests. For a map of where the can be found  and other interesting facts refer to this link: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/coati

You’ll also find lots of signs with warnings: DO NOT FEED COATI OR MONKEYS, THEY CAN BITE.

You should always bare in mind when you are visiting a natural park that wildlife is wildlife and we should help it remain us such. In the case of the coati it is quite common to find them around rest areas and park snack bars where people will be eating. Coati look friendly and many people don’t pay attention to warnings and feed them any way.

This is both bad for coati because human food, specially snack and processed food is not part of their diet. They should be eating insects, fruit, small rodents,lizards or even small snakes.

Also because they are getting used to being close to people and we wouldn’t want them to change their habits and depend on people for food. Also, they have sharp teeth and it’s not completely uncommon for them to attack if they really long for the food you gave them at first but then decided that you’d like to keep some for yourself. It might be too late then! Coati are best watched from a distance as is all wildlife, and food pleads ignored.

When we visited the Iguazú Falls National Park witnessed many cases of pleading coati and people who fed them thinking they were cute or funny. Which, of course they are. But if you feed just one coati you might find yourself looking at the following image.

As you can see, all their friends will join in and you might be in trouble. Coati tend to roam in packs and more will come if something attractive appears. Try that it will not be your food!

We didn’t see any of them attacking people but they were always roaming picnic areas and park rangers have a hard time trying to keep them away. In the picture you can see a typical shot in one of the snack bars. Can you see how close they are to a human? This man was not feeding them but they’ed still come and check.

While we were eating our lunch, we witnessed a sample of their mischief and extraordinary manual ability. There was a girls sitting at the table next to ours and she had hung her backpack from the back of her chair. While she was not looking, and chatting with her friens, we saw a coati start sniffing her backpack pocket, in less that a blink of an eye, it had opened the zipper and produced an alfajor! It ran away even faster to enjoy his prize elsewhere followed by some of his mates.

I must say I never thought it would be able to open a zipper and wondered: How on earth did it know there would be food in there! I guess its long nose is really good at sniffing even if the alfajor was in a closed package.

So if you visit the falls, you are already warned: keep your food to yourself or other humans and keep it safe too!

See my other articles: >> monkey business at Iguazu >> Iguazu Falls: stunning natural beauty

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