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Mark Earl Olson Zunica from the Institute of Biology at Mexico's National University, got in touch with me about using a photo in a book and took the opportunity to tell me about some of the mammals he encounters in his work in Mexico.

Mark has the misfortune to study plants, not mammals ... someone has to I suppose ;-) .... but he cannot help but run into things with four legs. He said

"I work quite a bit at the Chamela-Cuixmala reserve on the central coast of Jalisco state, where there are scads of Jaguars, Pumas, Ocelots, Jaguarundis (the latter are especially easy to see), Coatimundis, Peccaries, Deer, Foxes, and more bats that I imagined existed. I was recently on Cozumel Island in the Caribbean and had the privilege of getting my bag of pastries stolen by the endemic dwarf Cozumel Raccoon. As my wife says: endemic, but not stupid.

Jaguarundi are the easiest cats to see because they seem to frequent the edges of towns and dumps. I followed the footsteps of one for several kilometers along a beach in the wet sand just outside the wave wash. The Cozumel Raccoons are also easy to see by driving at night through the mangroves to the northern lagoon, not far north of downtown."

Return to the Mexico summary page.