Weight, 4-5 kg. Distribution in Texas. Coatis inhabit woodland areas of the warmer parts of Central America, Mexico, and the extreme southern United States including southern Texas. In Texas, they are only rarely known from Brownsville to the Big Bend region of the Trans-Pecos. They have been reported from Aransas, Brewster, Cameron, Hidalgo, Kerr, Maverick, Starr, Uvalde, and Webb counties.
Coatis spend considerable time on the ground, but they climb trees as easily as a squirrel.
When in trees, their long tail seems to function, as does that of a squirrel, largely in maintaining balance. They also occur in some of the rocky canyons that enter the mountains from the lowlands. Except for old males, which are largely solitary in habit, coatis are sociable creatures and travel in packs or troops. Unlike their relatives, the raccoons and ringtails, coatis are largely active by day, particularly in the early morning and late afternoon. They are omnivorous and consume a wide variety of available food including insects and other ground-dwelling arthropods, lizards, snakes, carrion, rodents, nuts and fruits of native trees, and prickly pear.