Unusual Critter Raids Florida Apartment, Bites Man

Kinkajou is a critter more often found in South or Central America
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 19, 2019 12:23 PM CDT
Kinkajou Bites Florida Man. Wait, What's a Kinkajou?
Stock photo of a kinkajou.   (Getty/Seregraff)

Wildlife authorities in Florida have a tough enough job dealing with alligators and pythons. Now, an angry kinkajou. It seems one of the small raccoon-ish mammals usually found in South and Central America ran into an apartment in Lake Worth Beach and attacked a man late last month, reports CBS12. The guy is OK, save for a bite and some scratches on his leg, having managed to trap the animal in the bathroom and call for help. The kinkajou is OK, too, having been taken to a wildlife facility. Authorities don't know how a kinkajou ended up in Florida, but it's clear that while the long-tailed critters look cute, they apparently have a nasty side.

"It sounded like a 300-pound man was tackling him in the kitchen," a woman in the apartment says of the man who was bitten. The man says he saw the kinkajou the night before and left some watermelon for it. The next day, when he tried to leave the apartment for work, the kinkajou apparently wanted more. "When he opened the door, it like charged at him, at his leg and like clung to his leg and then he was trying to get it off of his leg," says the woman. "And it kept coming back in." Kinkajous, nicknamed honey bears, spend most of their time in trees, per WFTV. They typically weigh between 3 and 7 pounds. (More strange stuff stories.)

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