These coatis used to be kept at a very young age. But in spite of having been legally bought, coatis are still wild animals, and make terrible pets, even though they extremely cute and makes you want to cuddle them. So, after a little while, their owner realized that was a really bad idea, donating them to an institute that could care for them properly. But those animals, growing up as pets, could not be released, for they are now humanized, and are no longer afraid of people. So they started being used for educational purposes, so that students could learn how to properly handle wildlife, but in order to do that, they would have to not attack the students handling them, which, for a coati, is a lot to ask. So their caretaker had to sit with them, every day, for them to get accustomed to it, and cooperate, otherwise they would simply be animals in captivity.

South American Coatis (Nasua nasua) are very energetic animals, and extremely curious! They spend most of their time exploring, climbing, while looking for food or anything else they can steal, causing trouble in the process! They don't take no for an answer, and will climb on people and search every inch of them, trying to find something they consider interesting! They have a very similar personality to raccoons, members of the same family (Procyonidae).

In this video you can clearly observe these behaviors. One of wants to check out everything: "could there be something hidden in the sleeves, or underneath the lab coat, or maybe I'll check if there's something on her back!". The other one is clearly obsessed with his caretaker's pocket! He doesn't want anything else, just whatever is in the pocket! And he's not willing to share it either! So determined! Animals are so funny!