As I was planning my trip across the southern USA, I noticed a moderately large green spot on the map between Tucson, AZ (where I was visiting Saguaro NP) and El Paso, TX (where I planned to spend a night before visiting Guadalupe Mountains NP and Carlsbad Caverns NP). It turns out that is the Chiricahua National Monument, and after a little research, it looked like a good place to try and visit and worth a bit of a detour to do so.
One of the things high on list of things I wished to see there was a White-nosed Coati. As they are diurnal (active during the day), and supposedly fairly common there, I figured my chances were good. After a change to my work schedule greatly reduced my available time to explore there, I arrived to the area not long before the visitor center/ranger station closed. I talked to a ranger and learned that a large group of coati had been wandering around the area right near the visitor center for most of the morning, but they had since moved off and the ranger thought my chances of finding them was somewhat small.
Undeterred, I headed off on a hike to an area where I might have some luck, and indeed I found a very large group of them…
Mom
March 14, 2024 at 7:25pmThese photos are great. I love they way they hold those long tails up to the sky!