[3] Other genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of the coatis are the olingos (genus Bassaricyon),[4][5][6] from which they diverged about 10.2 million years ago.

Their diet consists largely of insects (including their larvae), spiders and other invertebrates as well as the occasional small vertebrate discovered while energetically foraging, with their sensitive noses to the ground, in forest leaf litter.

On Barro Colorado Island, Panama, where they have been studied in greatest detail,[8][9] they supplement this diet with copious amounts of fruit as it becomes available seasonally from favored trees, such as figs (Ficus insipida) and hog plums (Spondias mombin).

Nonetheless, persistent social bonds may form anew at this point in the reproductive cycle: while there may be a tendency to reaggregate with kin, prior relationships are not indispensable.

1), though it is clearly mutually beneficial as well: the burden of ticks on band members is lower than it is on solitary adult males, for instance.

Juvenile mortality is high, sources of peril including adult male coatis which have been observed to kill them.