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The animal kingdom just got a lot cuter.
Scientists have discovered a a new species of mammal — a raccoon-like furball with the face of a teddy bear.
Called the olinguito, the adorable critter is the first new “carnivora” species to be identified in 35 years, say scientists, who unveiled the discovery yesterday.
“It’s been kind of hiding in plain sight for a long time,” said Kristofer Helgen, the Smithsonian Institution’s curator of mammals who researched the animal for years.
“It looks kind of like a fuzzball . . . kind of like a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat.”
The friendly 2-pound critter — long mistaken for its beady-eyed, less-charming cousin, the olingo — lives in Ecuador and Colombia and spends nights bouncing from tree to tree.
Though classified as carnivora — a group that includes dogs, cats and bears — it nibbles primarily on fruits and leaves.
Helgen discovered the olinguito while studying pelts and skeletons and led a team of researchers to South America in 2006 to confirm its identity as a species all its own.
Olinguitos are smaller than olingos and have shorter tails, rounder faces and tinier ears with darker and bushier fur.
“How is it different? In almost every way that you can look at it,” Helgen said.
Thousands of olinguitos live in mountainous forests but mostly travel through trees at night, so they are hard to spot.
New species are regularly identified, but it’s rare to find a new mammal, experts say.
“Most people believe there are no new species to discover, particularly of relatively large charismatic animals . . . This study demonstrates that this is clearly not the case,” said Darin Croft, a professor at Case Western Reserve University.