If raccoon dogs are superbeginner misnomering — they look remarkably like raccoons crossed with dogs, and they’re in the same family as dogs, honestly it makes sense — then binturongs, aka bearcats, are at least intermediate level. People on the internet argue that they have a face like a cat and the body of a bear, but I’m just not seeing it.
For one, while they’re in the same family as civets and fossas — two animals that vaguely resemble cats if you’ve had a couple beers — they’re not actually that closely related to felines (same order, but it’s a big one. Though again, this is *as close* as some armadillos are to each other. Clearly didn’t hit that fact hard enough in the original post but it continues to blow my mind).
And bears? Furgeddaboutit. They’re way to small (only about 2-3 feet long, but dense), and have you seen the tail? Most un-bear-like. While the tails are very bad for making them look like bears, they are very good at grabbing onto things, making them the very rare (one of two) carnivores with prehensile tails.
Also, when I said carnivores? LIES. Scientists: bad at naming things! Despite being in the carnivora order, they’re omnomnomnivores and prefer fruits, especially berries (they are also 1/2 animals that can digest something called a strangling fig, which makes them a keystone species because the seeds grow better after they’ve passed through the binturong body). However, they’ll eat whatever is around, including fish, rodents, birds, insects, eggs, leaves, and carrion (any of the above that they didn’t kill).
And I’m legally required by the rules of the internet to tell you that they smell like popcorn. I’m not legally obligated to tell you why, but I’m going to do so anyway: it’s because their pee contains 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, the chemical compound that gives popcorn its aroma, and they mark their territory. Yum yum yum. Next time you go to the movies ask yourself, is that popcorn, or are binturongs really into the Avengers?
Also, the tufts on their ears are real and not just a style choice (though they are a style choice, and one I agree with), and baby binturongs are called binlets and are as cute as the name would imply (which is to say: very cute).
