If you like pets you would find a tamed kinkajou (also called honey bear) an appealing and playful one. But in the wild they are tough and fierce. In the forests of southern Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, this six or seven-pound thickly furred member of the raccoon family makes its home. Fully grown they are two feet long, or slightly smaller, plus a slender tail of the same length.
Like some monkeys, their tails are used to grab branches in traveling through the trees and enable them at times to hang upside down, as well as being a help in keeping their balance when jumping from one branch to another.
They are a pretty grayish-brown with some faint darker colors and a white stomach. Heads are round with pointed noses, cup-shaped ears and large, innocent-looking eyes adding to their beauty. The Creator has also provided them with sharp claws on their front feet to help in climbing. They also will hold a piece of fruit or other food in one hand while breaking off pieces with the other for eating, just like we do.
During the day they nap in crotches of trees, with tails wrapped snugly around them. They become lively at twilight, hunting food, including fruit, honey, small birds and animals, insects and nectar licked from flowers. Long tongues are a help in probing crevices for insects. At times they will use their long tails to reach into insect nests, there pull them out and lick off any insects stuck to them.
Usually just one baby is born to the parents each year, looking like a cute little kitten with its soft tan fur and tightly shut eyes that don’t open for about four weeks. But long before that its tail can get a tight grip on things it encounters. When only three months old it might be found playfully hanging head-downward with its tail securely wrapped about a small limb. In a year’s time it is fully grown. Many have long lives for so little an animal — some in captivity reaching nearly 20 years.
These cuddly animals are examples of the Creator’s care for all living things, even in the wild, tropical forests. But His thoughts toward every boy and girl are far better, for He invites you to live with Him in heaven when your life here is over. In great love the Lord Jesus made this possible by bearing on Calvary’s cross the sins of all who admit they are sinners, thank Him for dying for them and take Him as their own Saviour. Will you be with the happy ones who will be with Him for all eternity?
ML-08/14/1988