{"id":413168,"date":"2026-08-21T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/413168\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:54:10","slug":"kinkajou-rescued-from-texas-heat-in-north-richland-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/413168\/","title":{"rendered":"Kinkajou rescued from Texas heat in North Richland Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone missing a kinkajou?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A kinkajou<\/a>, native to the rainforests of Central and South America, was rescued by North Richland Hills police after officers found the exotic animal<\/a> seeking refuge from the Texas heat. <\/a><\/p>\n

Officers were called Thursday afternoon to the area of\u00a0Rufe Snow Drive and Loop 820 after reports of what witnesses initially thought might be a kangaroo or monkey outside a local business, according to police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When officers arrived, they found the small animal visibly hot and thirsty, seeking shade. Three officers carefully corralled and captured it before North Richland Hills Animal Services took over its care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department later identified the animal as a kinkajou.<\/p>\n

Kinkajous are small, tree-dwelling mammals, police said in a Facebook post.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

North Richland Hills Animal Services is working to locate the animal\u2019s owner or find a placement capable of providing the care it needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police did not say how the kinkajou ended up near the business or how long it may have been loose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although they may look somewhat like primates, kinkajous are actually related to raccoons.<\/p>\n

They have feet that can rotate backward, helping them move along branches and tree trunks, and a prehensile tail that acts almost like an extra limb for gripping and balancing, according to National Geographic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kinkajous are nocturnal omnivores, meaning they are most active at night and eat a varied diet that includes fruit, insects, and sometimes small mammals. They are also sometimes called \u201choney bears\u201d because they use their long tongues to reach honey and insects inside nests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

National Geographic says adults generally weigh between 3 and 7 pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone missing a kinkajou?\u00a0 A kinkajou, native to the rainforests of Central and South America, was rescued by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10144,27,29,28,125664,87998],"class_list":["post-413168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-north-richland-hills","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-cute-animals","tag-tp-dallas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}