Kinkajou escapes via public transit

[skippy]

Kinkajou flees zoo, bites bus passenger

Tue Apr 3, 9:52 PM ET

MEXICO CITY - A kinkajou, also known as a honey bear — that escaped from a Mexico City zoo boarded a bus and attacked a passenger, officials said Tuesday. The kinkajou, which is about the size of a small dog, got on the bus at about 11 p.m. Monday after escaping from the San Juan de Aragon Zoo.

The animal sat next to the bus driver for almost an hour as he drove through the city, and scratched and bit a 20-year-old female passenger when she tried to hold it, the Mexican news agency Notimex said.

There was some initial confusion about the animal's identity. While Red Cross spokesman Jair Martinez initially identified the creature as a monkey, and some local media referred to it as a lemur, Aleli Mayorca of the city's main Chapultepec Zoo said it was a "martucha," or kinkajou, a nocturnal animal native to Central and South America.

The kinkajou is related to, but different from, the raccoon.

Martinez said the woman was treated for her injury, and the animal was placed in quarantine. He said he had no further details.