YAKIMA — Why did the kinkajou cross the road? And what’s a kinkajou, anyway?
One of the mammals — which look like a cross between a monkey and a tiny bear — was found far from its normal rainforest habitat this week at a highway rest stop amid the rolling sagebrush plains of Central Washington, officials say.
Kinkajous have prehensile tails, and this one was spotted Sunday climbing on a tall wooden post along Interstate 82 southeast of Yakima, the state Department of Transportation said in a post on X.
“We don’t know if it was dropped off or escaped,” the post said. The animal was rescued by the state Fish and Wildlife Department.
Kinkajous are carnivores that live in tropical rainforests from southern Mexico through Brazil, according to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, where this little creature was taken to live temporarily.