Bioacoustics of Nasua narica

Breeding. Breeding is highly seasonal in White-nosed Coatis, typically within a 2-4 week period. This occursin late January in Panama . Mating has been observed in the trees and on the ground. The mating system for coatis in Tikal National Park, Guatemala has been described as a mobile lek, with aggregations of males following female bands and climbing into the trees above them to display. Male vocalizations were similar to the alarm calls given by coatis in bands, but they were repeated steadily for many minutes at a time, not given in several-second bursts as in alarm situations. Females then selected one of these males to mate, by climbing up into the tree where he was displaying. This unique behavior has not been described for other coati populations, so it is unclear how widespread it is. Females can first breed at 22 months, but often wait another year or two depending on ecological conditions. Males can first mate at 34 months, but because of competition for matings, may not be successful until they are four or five years old; some males are probably never able to breed. Females leave their bandsto give birth in a tree after a 70-77 day gestation period. Young coatis begin to walk at eleven days and are able to rejoin the band with their mothers by 40 days. Litter size is 1-6, although some die before rejoining the band. Most females rejoin the band with an average of 3-5 juveniles. Females nurse for up to four months, and will nurse and care for offspring from other band members. Young males leave the band and becomesolitary after about two years. Animals in captivity have lived to 17 years, and to at least nine in the wild.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. The amount of space used by coatis is flexible across their range, with population averages varying from 0-33 to 13-5 km? in different habitats. The high end of this variation is in Arizona, where home range size averaged 13-5 km?* for bands, 6-1 km? for solitary males, and did not fluctuate greatly between seasons or years. In Mexican dry forest home range size averaged 3-8 km? and was not different between males and bands in total area. Bands used roughly half as much area in the wet season, although males did not change ranging behavior seasonally. Additionally, range size varied greatly (from 45 and 362 ha) within the dry forest in ways that were notrelated to food abundance, butto the dispersion of water sources during the dry season. In Panamanian rainforest, home range size averaged about 0-33 km*® for both males and females. Coatis are among the most gregarious of the Carnivora . White-nosed Coati groups have been reported as large as 30, although 5-18 animals are more typical. These matrilineal groups, known as bands, are composed primarily of related females and their offspring. Some non-relatives may also be in the band, although they receive more aggression, and less coalition support, from other band members. The size of groups fluctuates over time due to mortality, newly born juveniles, and emigrating subadult males. Large groups often split into subgroups that separate for several hours or days, and sometimes fission permanently into two groups. Fusion of previously separate groups has also been noted, although groups are typically slightly antagonistic to neighboring groups. Most males are solitary, and are usually chased awayif they approach female groups. However, some males are tolerated, and groups may have a few adult males associating with them. These are typically older offspring remaining in their natal home range and they do notsire offspring with the group. They may associate with groupsto take advantage of grooming or for the safety in numbers. Group members show a variety of cooperative behaviors including shared parental care, grooming, shared vigilance, and cooperative attacks on potential predators. Food is not shared between adults, although juveniles are tolerated by feeding animals. Group members do not cooperate to hunt invertebrates and females are actually more efficient when hunting away from the group. However, grouping may help the smaller females gain access to fruiting trees, as groups cooperate to chase away larger males that would otherwise be dominant in one-on-one interactions. Reducing predation risk seems to be a universal benefit of grouping in coatis. For example, in dry forests larger coati groups can drink more at water holes, a focal point for predators. Predation rates can be high, causing more than 50% of deaths in some populations in Mexico and Arizona. Predation rates are highest on solitary coatis and nexthighest on small groups, with larger groups having the lowest predation rate. These lower rates result from a suite of anti-predator behaviors, including foraging with the Juveniles in the center of the group, sharing vigilance, and alarm calling, and mobbing and attacking predators. Given their diurnal and social tendencies,it is not surprising that White-nosed Coatis have a rich repertoire of specific vocalizations for aggression, appeasement, alarm, and sexual contact. The two most common calls are chirps and squawks. Squawks are longer-duration, low-maximum frequency, wide-bandwidth calls with six resonances and little frequency modulation. Chirps are tonal calls of shorter duration, with frequency modulations. Chirps are high frequency, extending above the human hearing range into ultrasonic frequencies (30-55 kHz). They seem to function as contact calls, being emitted only while bands of coatis are moving. The short duration and high frequency of the calls may allow for contact with nearby group members while minimizing auditory detection by predators. Unique features of each coati’s chirp also may allow individual recognition. Like most Carnivora , coatis are also known to scent-mark. Males mark with a perineal gland throughout the year, while females primarily mark only before the mating season.