Meet the olinguito, the world’s newest mammal

Imagine a racoon with a teddy-bear face so cute it’s hard to resist, let alone overlook. But somehow science did — until now.

Researchers have announced a discovery of a new species of mammal — the first in 35 years — called the olinguito. The racoon-sized animal leaps through the trees of Ecuador and Colombia at night.

But it should not have been too hard to find. One, Ringerl, lived in zoos across the US between 1967 and 1976 as zookeepers hoped it would breed with a species with which it was mistaken, the olingo. It did not.

Smithsonian curator of animals Kristofer Helgen, who proved it was a different species, says it is hard to understand how the two were confused as they are different “in almost every way”.