Where do noses live. Nosuha: is it worth getting an animal as a pet? Reproduction and lifespan
The name coati or coatimundi is borrowed from the language of the Tupian Indians. The prefix "coati" means "belt" and "tim" means "nose".
area: South American nosocha found in tropical regions South America: from Colombia and Venezuela to Uruguay, northern Argentina, it is also found in Ecuador.
Description: The head is narrow with a slightly upward elongated and very flexible nose. Ears are small and rounded inside with white rims. The fur is short, thick and fluffy. The tail is long, used for balance when moving. On the tail are light yellowish rings, alternating with rings of black or brown.
The South American nosoha has short and powerful paws. The ankles are very mobile, thanks to which the animals can climb down from the tree, both the front and the back end of the body. The claws on the fingers are long, the soles are bare. Thanks to strong clawed paws, nosuha successfully uses them to dig out insect larvae from under rotten logs.
The fangs are very sharp, and the molars and premolars have high and sharp edges.
Dental formula - i3/3, c1/1, p4/4, m2/2, total 40 teeth.
Color: The South American nosoha is characterized by wide color variability, not only within the range, but even among babies from the same litter.
Usually the body color varies from orange or reddish to dark brown. The muzzle is usually colored uniform brown or black. Pale, lighter spots are located above, below and behind the eyes.
The neck is yellowish. Feet are dark brown to black. The tail is two-colored, the rings are sometimes faintly visible.
The size: Body length - 73-136 cm (average 104.5 cm). Tail length - 32-69 cm. Height at withers 30 cm.
The weight: 3-6 kg (average 4.5 kg).
Lifespan: In nature 7-8 years. The maximum life span in captivity has reached 17 years and 8 months.
Voice: Females use barking vocalizations to alert their clan members to the presence of danger. They also make whimpering sounds to keep the young close to them during the weaning process.
Habitat: From shrublands to primary evergreen rainforests.
Nosukh can be found in lowland forests, wooded river areas, dense bushes and rocky areas. Thanks to human influence, they currently prefer secondary forests and forest edges. On the eastern and western slopes of the Andes mountains, they are found up to 2500 meters above sea level.
Enemies: Jaguars, cougars, ocelots, jaguarundis, as well as large birds of prey, boas. Persecuted by man for meat.
Food: South American noses are primarily omnivores and usually seek out fruits and invertebrates. They eat eggs, beetle larvae and other insects, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, ants, termites, lizards, small mammals, rodents, and even carrion when it is available to them.
They can be found in landfills, where they scour human garbage and select everything edible from it. Sometimes South American coats eat chickens from local farmers.
Behavior: Usually active during the day. Animals spend most active time for food, and at night they sleep on trees, which also serve to equip the den and give birth to offspring.
When threatened on the ground, the noses run to the trees; when predators threaten on a tree, they easily run to the end of the branch of one tree, and then jump to the lower branch on the same or even another tree.
An analysis of the structure of the eyes of the South American coaty showed that they contain a special layer, which indicates that their daytime activities evolved from a nocturnal ancestor. In addition, the nose has been found to have color vision. Unlike kinkajou ( Potos flavus), the South American nosoha demonstrates the ability to distinguish between shades of colors.
Nosuhi are good climbers and swimmers. On the ground, they walk leisurely, although they can gallop for short distances. Them average speed movement is approximately 1 m/s.
The anal glands have a special arrangement, and they are unique among Carnivora. They are a glandular region located along the upper edge anus, containing a series of bags that open with four or five slits on the sides. The fatty secretion secreted from these glands is used to mark the territory.
social structure: Female South American Nosoha live in groups of 4-20 individuals, sometimes up to 30 animals. Such a group includes several sexually mature females, the rest of the members are their immature cubs. These groups are very mobile, as the nosoha move a lot in search of food. Males lead a solitary life and only during the mating season join the family groups of females. Shortly after mating, they leave the group.
Each family group has its own territory, which is usually about 1 km in diameter. home plots various groups may partially overlap. South American coats in such groups participate in social grooming, and are more protected from enemies than single individuals.
reproduction: In the mating season, one male is accepted into the group of females and young. Everyone pairs with him. sexually mature females living in a group.
The period of growing offspring is timed to the time of fruit ripening.
Season/breeding period: October-March, young people are born in April-June.
Puberty : In females at 2 years, in males - about 3 years.
Pregnancy: 74-77 days.
Offspring: In a litter, a South American nosukha usually has 3-7 (average 5) cubs.
The female gives birth to her offspring in a den, which she equips in isolated hollows of trees, for which time she leaves her social group.
Newborn cubs are helpless: they have no hair, they are blind and weigh only 75-80 grams. The eyes open at about 10 days. At the age of 24 days, young coats can already walk and focus their eyes. At 26 days, the cubs are able to climb, they switch to thick food at the age of 4 months.
When the cubs are five to six weeks old, the female returns to her family group.
Benefit / harm to humans: South American nosy helps control the population of some types of harmful insects. They (as prey) provide food for a number of predators, and are probably important in dispersing the seeds of some plant species.
Rough noses occasionally cause damage while harvesting fruit, and have also been known to attack poultry.
Population/conservation status: In Uruguay, South American coats are protected by Appendix III of the CITES Convention.
The main threats to this species are: intrusion into its habitats (clearing for the mining industry, extraction of timber, etc.) and hunting.
Ten subspecies are currently recognized: Nasua nasua boliviensis, Nasua nasua candace, Nasua nasua dorsalis, Nasua nasua manium, Nasua nasua montana, Nasua nasua nasua, Nasua nasua quichua, Nasua solitaria, Nasua nasua spadicea, Nasua nasua vittata.
Copyright holder: portal Zooclub
When reprinting this article, an active link to the source is MANDATORY, otherwise, the use of the article will be considered a violation of the "Law on Copyright and Related Rights".
The name was given due to its nose - elongated and rather mobile. Previously, they were called badgers, however, when real badgers were brought to Mexico, where they live, this animal was given a different, own name.
The article provides information about the nose: a photo of the animal, where it lives, lifestyle, etc.
General information
It should be noted that the word "coat" (coat or coatimundi) comes from the Indian Tupian. Coati is translated as "belt", mun - nose.
Coati (or noses) are mammals belonging to the raccoon family. This funny and cute animal resembles a fox. It lives in South and Central America. This good-natured animal is a favorite of local Indians. They are distinguished by a sociable and friendly disposition, they love to play with children and are quite easily tamed. However, farmers are more cool about the nosuha due to the habit of these animals to visit the chickens in their farmlands. Therefore, they have to set traps on them and even shoot at the approaches to the farm. Fortunately, nothing threatens their population yet - the number is quite large.
It is perfectly acceptable to keep a nosuha as a pet. She is quickly and easily tamed by humans.
Kinds
Naturalists from Europe, when they first saw noses, identified about 30 varieties based on the behavior and color of the wool of these animals, but modern taxonomists have reduced this number to three by today. And this is quite justified.
Both the morphology and the behavior of the noses are actually variable. Even the behavior of males and females is so different that they can be attributed to completely different types. Of course, these differences are mostly related to social behavior animals: females live in organized small groups ("clans") with cubs, and males live alone. Behavioral relationships are also quite complex and a little incomprehensible among noses. For example, clan members can clean each other, as well as take care not only of their cubs, but also of strangers. Among other things, they, through the joint efforts of the entire community, drive away predators.
In total, depending on the habitat, three types of coati are distinguished: coati, ordinary and Nelson's coati (previously it represented separate view). Another species - the mountain nose, found only in the north-west of South America (in the Andes valleys), belongs to a separate genus of mountain noses (Nasuella).
habitats
Nosoha (a photo of the animal is presented in the article) lives in the tropics of Central and South America. The range extends from Venezuela and Colombia to Uruguay, northern Argentina and Ecuador. On the western and eastern slopes of the Andes, they can be found up to 2500 meters. These animals are perfectly adapted to live in a variety of natural conditions. They inhabit a wide variety of areas: shrubs and evergreens. rain forests. These animals are found in lowland primary forests, in rocky areas, in wooded areas of river banks and in dense shrubs. At present, due to human influence, they prefer to settle in forest edges and secondary forests.
Most of all they prefer coniferous and deciduous forests moderate climate zone. They easily tolerate both winter frosts and summer heat.
Description
The head of the coat (see photo in the article) is narrow, elongated. The muzzle ends with a surprisingly mobile nose. The small ears are slightly rounded. Brown small eyes are close-set. There are light symmetrical spots around the nose and eyes, and dark areas are noticeable on the cheeks. The long striped tail (about 69 centimeters) used by the animal for balancing is covered with short thick fur. On the toes of the paws there are strong claws, the tips of the paws are dark. The height at the withers reaches 29 centimeters, however, females are two times smaller in size than males. The length of the body with a tail is 80-130 centimeters, weight - up to 6 kilograms. The color of the coat is diverse: they are found with dark brown, red and grayish-brown coat colors.
The lifespan of this animal wild nature is approximately 14 years, and at home they live longer - more than 17 years.
Lifestyle, behavior
Nosukhs are animals that are active throughout the daylight hours. They arrange their lodging for the night on the largest branches of trees. They descend to the ground early in the morning, before dawn. Morning toilet consists in a thorough cleaning of the fur, after which they go hunting with a funny tail sticking up. The animal looks for food in fallen leaves, among branches and stones, which they deftly turn over. At noon, they rest only on the hottest summer days.
Females with their cubs live in groups of about 20 individuals, while males usually stay alone. There are brave males who try to join groups of females, however, there they are usually rebuffed. Females make barking sounds to warn their group of approaching danger.
Nosuhi are animals that communicate with each other through a rich set of sounds, developed facial expressions and signal postures. Them natural enemies - predator birds, boas, ocelots and jaguars. In the event of danger approaching, they hide in the nearest pit or hole. In the process of escaping from predators, their speed can reach up to 30 kilometers per hour. In addition, they can run for up to three hours without stopping. On the calmest days, these animals slowly go around their home properties (area from 40 to 300 hectares), while passing 2-7 kilometers per day.
A little about membership in the nosuh clan
Who is a legitimate member of the nosuh clan? Presumably, clans should be formed on the basis of blood kinship. However, in the case of noses, the results genetic research show that in reality, the clans of these amazing animals also include unrelated individuals.
Large-scale field studies that were carried out in Panama demonstrated that those very unrelated members of clans often represent the object of aggression from all other animals. They push them out of the territory of their community. And there it is quite possible to become a victim of predators. It turns out that it is more profitable for the noses to be in the clan, while receiving some advantages.
Diet
Nosuha is an omnivore animal. The diet includes various larvae, eggs, earthworms, beetles, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, ants, lizards, crabs, frogs and small rodents. They love to eat fruits. various plants and ripe fruit picked from the ground or plucked from branches.
Sometimes the noses examine the garbage near human settlements, and they are also able to steal chickens from farmers.
reproduction
As noted above, adult males live alone, and they meet with other noses only during the breeding season. At the same time, males fight among themselves for the right to mate with females of a certain group.
The mating season lasts from January to March. The duration of pregnancy is 75 days. The female equips a nest for babies in a hollow or on the ground, in a hole. She gives birth to up to 6 cubs at a time. To keep them near her, the female makes whimpering sounds.
About newborns
Nosokha animals in a newborn state are helpless: they are blind, completely devoid of wool, weighing about 80 g. The eyes open about 10 days after birth. By 24 days of age, they have the ability to focus their eyes and walk. At 26 days, the cubs begin to climb branches. When the cubs are about 5-6 weeks old, the female returns to the family group with them. Mothers look after young people up to 4 months old.
Young females reach reproductive maturity at about 2 years of age, and the participation of males in reproduction begins at about 3 years of age. It should also be noted that adult males are dangerous for cubs. This is due to the fact that the latter are always expelled from the family group.
Finally
Men in recent times forests where these cute and funny animals live are increasingly being cut down, which is the main reason for their decline in numbers. Nosoha quickly get used to people, therefore they are able to live near human dwellings. However, often people are aggressive towards noses due to the fact that they cause significant damage to farms.
Fortunately, there is no threat of extinction for the noses today, but it cannot be said that there is no reason for concern. For example, one of the subspecies - Nelson's coat (little studied), living in Mexico (Cozumel Island), is threatened with destruction due to the rapidly developing tourism and industry, and the mountain coat turned out to be quite sensitive to human use of lands where forests were cut down.
Many animals get their name from their appearance, habits, or behavior. In this case, nosuha is no exception.
What does nose look like
Appearance this animal is fully consistent with its name. The coat has an elongated muzzle, which ends in a narrow, but very mobile and flexible nose. The tail, tapering towards the end, also has a decent length. When moving, it is always carried straight, although the uppermost tip of the tail is slightly curved.
The total body length of this animal can vary from 80 cm to 1 meter 30 cm, with almost half in the tail.
The height at the withers reaches 29 cm. The average weight of the female nose is 3-5 kg, but the males weigh twice as much.
The color of the coat on its upper side of the body is black or brownish with a gray tint, and the bottom is whitish. Besides White color indicated as spots below and above each eye, on the cheeks, and also on the throat. The tail is decorated with rings of both dark and light shades. It is the presence of spots on the muzzle and the color of the fur that are the only characteristics of their kind. physical property by which other types of noses are distinguished.
The average weight of a female nosoha is 3-5 kg. Where does nosuha live
Individuals of this species have found their distribution in the forests of the Southern, Northern and Central America, and can also be found in Arizona and Colombia.
Nosuha lifestyle
The white-nosed nose can keep alone, but no one bothers individuals of this species to gather in a group in which total animals reaches 40 units. One such group may include young males and females, and males who have reached puberty join them only for a period mating games.
Each male establishes his territory. To mark the boundaries, male noses secrete a secret from the anal glands, which they apply to the surface of a different substrate when they rub their stomach against them. In addition, the occupied territory can be marked with urine. When a stranger invades, defending their site, the noses enter into a fight, using claws and fangs.
An interesting feature of these animals is that adult males of this species can be active not only during the day, but also at night, but the rest only during the day. In hot weather, noses prefer to hide in shady places. When the heat subsides, the coats go hunting. The animal presses its prey to the ground, and then kills it. When hunting, nosukha can make a path at a distance of up to 2 km.
Young people love to spend time in games, and arrange a noisy fight among themselves. When night falls, the animals climb almost to the tops of the trees, thus escaping from most predators.
The sounds made by these animals are quite diverse. They are similar to: grunting, chirping, snoring, as well as screaming and whimpering.
AT vivo these animals can live for 7 years, but in captivity this period increases by almost 2 times.
Nosukha nutrition
The white-nosed coati is called "coati". The main food for noses are small animals: frogs, snakes, rodents, lizards, chicks, insects, and even land crabs, however, on occasion, they do not refuse bird eggs and carrion. In addition, noses also eat plants, their fruits, some parts of the roots, and sometimes nuts. They love to eat the fruits of bearberry, tannic and prickly pear.
reproduction
During the breeding season, which is from January to March, general groups males join. They begin to actively fight for the possession of the female. The teeth are shown to the opponent, in addition, a threatening pose is taken - lifting, on the hind legs, lifting up the end of its muzzle. Only the strongest dominant has the right to remain in the group to mate with females. After fertilization, the females kick out the male, as he behaves rather aggressively towards the babies.
Before giving birth, a pregnant female leaves the group and is engaged in arranging a den for future cubs. Hollow trees become a place for childbirth, but sometimes a shelter is chosen among stones, in a wooded canyon or in a rocky niche.
Nosuha's pregnancy lasts 77 days. In a litter, the number of babies can range from 2 to 6. The weight of a newborn cub is 100 - 180 grams. All responsibility and upbringing lies with the female. The mother's milk is fed by little noses for 4 months and remains with the female until it is time for her to prepare for next birth offspring.
After 11 days, the eyes of the newborns open, for a few more days the babies remain in the shelter, after which the female brings them to the general group.
Meet nosuha or coati, close relative(I wrote about him before), because he is also a raccoon. There are three types of noses and they are all Native Americans, however, someone lives in North and someone in South America.
Females live in groups of up to 12 adults and kids. This group moves through the tropical forest during feeding in all tiers at the same time - some along the trees, and some along the ground, holding their striped tails high. All these noses have one goal - to get food. Almost everything is eaten - small birds and their eggs, as well as fruits. They sniff out everything, dig it out, get it out of any crack with their long and very mobile nose, thanks to which they actually got their name.
Well, if one of the noses notices the danger, they immediately whistle and the whole group, as if on command, climbs higher up the tree. So to speak, at the top and safer and enemies are better visible.
The males nosuh lead a lonely life. They join females only in mating season, and each has its own. And if someone encroaches on someone else's, then both claws and teeth are already in use, zealously protecting coatis of their females.
A few days before the cubs appear (there are usually 4-5 of them), the nosah female leaves the flock and builds a nest in a tree. There she gives birth, and there she feeds the offspring for about five weeks. Then grown up, but still small nosuh leads to his friends in the flock.
Nosuha(from the Latin Nasua) or coati (from the Spanish Coati) is a genus of mammals from the raccoon family. Your name raccoon received because of a peculiar movable nose resembling a trunk. The natives of one of the Indian tribes named the animal so, in whose language it sounds like coatimundi, which means "coati" - belt, "mun" - "nose".
The body length of the animal, excluding the tail, is from 40 to 70 centimeters, the tail is quite long and fluffy, reaching 30-60 centimeters in size. Adult weight raccoon coats up to 11 kg. The hind limbs of the animal are longer than the front ones and have movable ankles, which allows them to climb trees upside down.
The claws on the paws are quite long and are used both for moving around the terrain and vegetation, and for extracting food from the bark of trees and the ground. The head is of medium size, in proportion to the body, with protruding small, rounded ears. The color of the body dry is brown-red, gray-red or black-red. The tail is striped with alternating rings of lighter tones with dark ones.
A general understanding of the appearance of these animals can be viewed on the Internet at numerous photo nosuh. Habitat nosokha - North and South American continent. These mammals prefer to settle in tropical forests, but are also found on the edge and even in mountainous and hilly areas.
Although coats are land-based, they are excellent at swimming and even love to do it very much. The membranes between the fingers help them move quickly through the water. Depending on the habitat, three types of coats are distinguished: ordinary coats, coati and nosuha Nelson.
Character and lifestyle
Nosoha family day inhabitants, at night they sleep, most often, in equipped places on trees - nests. These move mainly on land, and move very slowly - the average speed of their walking is no more than one meter per second. When hunting for food or impending danger, they can move much faster, but only over short distances.
Females with cubs live in small groups of 5 to 40 individuals, while males are mostly loners and come to the flock only during the breeding season, but not surprisingly, to the same females. Often there are fights between males because of females, if a strange male does not come to his flock.
Nosoha, although they belong to the raccoon family, unlike them, they are rather calm animals and easily get along with people. In an apartment, you can start a coat by placing it in a spacious cage, but if you have your own house, then an aviary is quite suitable for living such an animal.
Nose at home very quickly get used to their owners, do not bite or scratch in the game. For the animal to live normally, it is necessary to place in a cage or aviary: a shelter, a drinking bowl, a feeder and necessarily structures for climbing them, perhaps these structures can easily replace tree snags.
For ease of cleaning the housing of this animal, sawdust or dry foliage can be laid out at the bottom of the cage. In order for the animal to warm up, it is sometimes worth releasing it, under vigilant control, from the cage.
Nosukha nutrition
food animal nose are frogs, lizards, small mammals, insects and various fruit fruits. Thus, these animals are omnivores. The search for food is usually done in groups, notifying other participants in the search about the discovery of food or danger, in the form large predators, by means of a raised vertical tail and a vocal whistle.
They look for food using their amazing nose-trunk, sniffing everything around them and feeling food through smell. If the search for an insect occurs on a tree or on the ground, then after the nosuha detects it, prey occurs with the help of long claws.
If the attention of the animal is a small animal, then the hunt occurs as follows: when a lizard, frog or other mammals is found, the nose chases him, catches up and bites through the neck, pressing the body of the victim to the ground, after which he kills him and eats parts.
If you bought a coat and keep her at home, then she should be given to eat lean meat, eggs and fruits (apples, bananas, etc.), also this animal never give up cheese.
Be sure to always make sure that there is water in the drinker in in large numbers. Nosuhi are not very picky about food. Daily diet adult reaches about 1-1.5 kg of food per day.
Reproduction and lifespan
Puberty of noses occurs from two years. When the female is ready for mating, the male comes to the flock, often having defended his advantage over the female in battles with other males. After that, the male-winner marks the territory of the couple's residence with a pungent smell and other males avoid being in these places.
The ritual before mating takes place in the form of cleaning the female's hair by the male. The period of removal of litter in these animals lasts about 75-77 days. Two or three weeks before giving birth, the female drives the male out and leaves the pack, making a nest in the trees for the birth of cubs.
The number of individuals born is usually from two to six small noses. The offspring of the nose grows very quickly and after 4-5 weeks the female with the cubs returns to the flock, where old females and young ones who have not yet given birth have helped her to raise offspring.
An interesting fact is that at the age of two or three weeks, little noses are already trying to move around and often try to get out of the cozy nest in which they were born, but since the females are constantly with the cubs after giving birth, they catch them and return them to their place.
In nature, it is very difficult to see the offspring of these animals, the females hide them very well in the trees in the nests. Therefore, to admire them, you can look nosukha cubs in the photo. Average duration The life of the nose is 10-12 years, but there are individuals who live up to 17 years.
