{"id":610047,"date":"2026-04-27T22:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610047\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:02:10","slug":"rare-texas-mammal-makes-surprise-appearance-in-the-hill-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610047\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Texas mammal makes surprise appearance in the Hill Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, the\u00a0Comal County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dealing with an unusual visitor<\/a>: a coatimundi found near the intersection of Highway 46 and Vintage Oaks.<\/p>\n

The exotic-looking mammal, with its long snout and ringed tail, quickly drew attention online. A\u00a0TikTok posted Sunday appeared to show the same animal wandering along FM 2673 near Canyon Lake.<\/p>\n

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the Hill Country<\/a>, but I’ve never seen one of these,” user @jamesdad1890 said in the video. “I don’t know what this poor guy is.”<\/p>\n

White-nosed coatis, also known as coatimundis, are considered rare in Texas and are listed as a threatened species by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. They are not federally listed, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the species as of least concern globally.<\/p>\n

The animals are far more common in Mexico and Central America, but historically ranged into parts of South and West Texas<\/a>, from the\u00a0Brownsville area to the Big Bend<\/a> region and east toward Kerr and Victoria counties. Wildlife experts say<\/a> habitat loss in southern Texas has hurt populations, though more recent sightings in places such as Big Bend<\/a> and Padre Island<\/a> have raised hopes of a rebound.<\/p>\n

Coatis are members of the raccoon family, which also includes ringtails<\/a>. They are active during the day, unlike many other small mammals, and use their long tails for balance while climbing and moving through brush.<\/p>\n

Though protected in Texas,\u00a0coatimundis can be kept as pets with the proper permits. Some cities, including San Antonio, ban them as pets.<\/p>\n

The mystery didn’t last long. Less than an hour after posting about the animal on Facebook, the sheriff’s office said its owners had been found and were on the way.<\/p>\n

“We appreciate the community’s assistance in helping us get this unique visitor safely back home,” the agency wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, the\u00a0Comal County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dealing with an unusual visitor: a coatimundi found near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[138621,243121,138622,243122,79,201],"class_list":["post-610047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-chronnews","tag-chronscience","tag-chronstaff","tag-chrontexas","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}