The eastern lowland olingo (''Bassaricyon alleni'') is a species of

olingo The genus ''Bassaricyon'' consists of small Neotropical procyonids, popularly known as olingos (), cousins of the raccoon. They are native to the rainforests of Central and South America from Nicaragua to Peru. They are arboreal and nocturnal, ...

from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, where it is known from the lowlands east of the

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Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

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and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

.Bassaricyon alleni - Allen's Olingo
NatureServe.org It is the only olingo species found east of the

. The Latin species name honors

Joel Asaph Allen Joel Asaph Allen (July 19, 1838 – August 29, 1921) was an American zoology, zoologist, mammalogy, mammalogist, and ornithology, ornithologist. He became the first president of the American Ornithologists' Union, the first curator of birds and ma ...

, the American zoologist who first described the genus ''Bassaricyon''.

Description

The eastern lowland olingo is smaller than the

northern olingo The northern olingo (''Bassaricyon gabbii''), also known as the bushy-tailed olingo or, simply, the olingo (due to it being the most common of the species), is an arboreal (tree-dwelling) member of the raccoon Family (taxonomy), family, Procyonid ...

, but larger than the recently described

olinguito The olinguito (''Bassaricyon neblina'') is a mammal of the raccoon family Procyonidae that lives in montane forests in the Andes of western Colombia and Ecuador. It was classified as belonging to a new species in 2013. The specific name ''nebli ...

("little olingo"), the most montane member of the genus. It is larger than the western lowland olingo subspecies ''B. medius medius'' from west of the Andes, but about the same size as the ''B. m. orinomus'' subspecies from eastern

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. The pelage is slightly darker than the western species. It has a head-body length of , with a tail length of . It weighs .

Taxonomy

The closest relative of the eastern lowland olingo is the western lowland species, ''B. medius'', from which it diverged about 1.3 million years ago.

Notes

Bassaricyon Fauna of the Amazon Mammals of Bolivia Carnivorans of Brazil Mammals of Colombia Mammals of Ecuador Mammals of Peru Mammals of Venezuela Mammals described in 1880 Least concern biota of South America Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas {{carnivora-stub