Most distinctive features are their elongated, flexible and slightly upturned noses, and long, ringed, two-foot tails. In open brush land, coati use powerful shoulders, strong blunt claws and their long, flexible snout to forage around the ground for food. Males are larger than females.
Adult males live apart from the band and hunt independently.
Coati are widely distributed in Mexico, Central America to west Columbia and Ecuador. In the United States, they only regularly occur in Arizona. The following describes the Arizona species which have quite different life-styles than those in South America. What Do They Eat Coati show considerable preference for certain foods and are fairly discriminating eaters. Turning over rocks and logs to find small rodents, lizards, snakes, scorpions, insects and grubs, coatis' diet consist of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and nuts.