Kinkajous live in tropical forests from Brazil to southern Mexico. They are quite common on Barro Colorado Island, although they can be hard for many people to spot because they only come out at night. You'll rarely find a kinkajou on the ground, as they feed and sleep up in the trees.
Kinkajous rely on the trees in their habitat to provide them with food and keep them safe from predators. During the daytime, when birds of prey such as harpy eagles are hunting, kinkajous will sleep hidden in the hollows of large trees. In turn, kinkajous provide valuable services for the trees which feed and protect them. As kinkajous drink nectar from flowers, pollen sticks to the fur on their faces, which then gets spread between the flowers they drink from over the course of the night. While their pollen-covered cheeks might remind you of a silly kinkajou version of a milk mustache, carrying pollen from flower to flower is important for trees to grow and reproduce. This makes kinkajous pollinators, like bees. Kinkajous also act as seed dispersers, eating fruit from a tree and "dropping off" its seeds somewhere further away later, allowing new trees to grow.
Along with threats from natural predators like jaguars and harpy eagles, kinkajous are harmed by human impact on their habitat. Kinkajous rely on old growth trees to survive, so deforestation (clearing a wide area of trees) costs kinkajous their source of food and shelter.
