Olinguito, New Species of Mammal, Discovered in S. America

This undated photo provided by the Smithsonian Institution shows an olinguito. The Smithsonian announced Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013 that they have discovered that the mammal, which they had previously mistaken for an olingo, is actually a distinct species. The olinguito belongs to the grouping of large creatures that include dogs, cats and bears. The raccoon-sized critters leap through the trees of the cloud forests of Ecuador and Colombia at night, according to a Smithsonian researcher who has spent the past decade tracking them. (AP Photo/Smithsonian Institution, Mark Gurney)

A new species of mammal called the olinguito was discovered by researchers, according to reports on Thursday.

A researcher with the Smithsonian said that it lives in mountainous forests of Columbia and Ecuador.

The animal is about the size of a raccoon or a cat, and it is in the same family.

Smithsonian scientists said the animal is active during the night, is a carnivore, but eats mainly fruit.

“You have not seen an animal quite like this before,” Kris Helgen, with the Smthsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, told USA Today in Washington, D.C.

Helgen noted that the mammal “was completely overlooked by all zoologists until now.”

He said his team first spotted the mammal in the Andes Mountains in 2006.

“The discovery of the olinguito shows us that the world is not yet completely explored, its most basic secrets not yet revealed,” Helgen told the Daily Mail.

“If new carnivores can still be found, what other surprises await us? So many of the world’s species are not yet known to science,” he added. “Documenting them is the first step towards understanding the full richness and diversity of life on Earth.”