When most people imagine the wildlife of Panama, they picture monkeys swinging through the canopy, colorful toucans, sleepy sloths or perhaps a brightly colored frog sitting beside a jungle stream. But after the sun disappears, Panama's forests reveal an entirely different cast of characters. One of the strangest and most fascinating is the kinkajou, a small, golden, tree dwelling mammal with enormous eyes, a long tail and a face that looks like someone mixed a monkey, a bear and a raccoon together. And then there is its wonderfully misleading nickname: the honey bear.
The kinkajou's scientific name is Potos flavus, and despite its somewhat bear like appearance, it is not related to bears. In fact, it belongs to the raccoon family, Procyonidae. It is also not a monkey, even though its ability to move through the treetops and its expressive face can make it look surprisingly primate like. Kinkajous are found throughout tropical Central and South America, including Panama, where they inhabit forests from lowland tropical areas to mountainous regions.
Why is it called a honey bear?
The name honey bear comes from the kinkajou's love of sweet foods and its remarkable ability to get into places that seem almost impossible to reach. Kinkajous have an extremely long, narrow tongue that they use to reach nectar, fruit pulp and other food hidden inside flowers and vegetation. They can also raid bee nests and consume honey, which is where the wonderfully appropriate nickname comes from.
Honey, however, is not what makes up most of their diet. Kinkajous are primarily fruit eaters, with fruit making up a major part of their diet. They also consume nectar, flowers and insects and occasionally other small animal foods. Their feeding habits make them important members of the tropical forest ecosystem because they can help move seeds through the forest after eating fruit.
And this is one of the great things about kinkajous. They may look like adorable little jungle troublemakers, but they are also quietly performing important ecological work every night.
The rainforest comes alive after dark
Kinkajous are nocturnal, which is one of the main reasons most visitors to Panama never see one. During daylight hours they can remain hidden high in the trees, sleeping in tree hollows or dense vegetation. Once darkness arrives, they become active and begin moving through the canopy in search of food.
This makes them particularly exciting to encounter because you usually aren't casually walking along a daytime hiking trail when you see one. You are looking into the darkness of the forest, often with a flashlight, and suddenly two enormous eyes appear between the leaves.
For a second you might wonder what on earth you are looking at.
Then the animal moves.
You see the golden fur.
The long tail.
The rounded face.
And suddenly you realize you are looking at one of Panama's strangest mammals.
That incredible tail
One of the kinkajou's most impressive adaptations is its prehensile tail. It can wrap around branches and help stabilize the animal while it moves through the canopy. The tail essentially acts as an additional support while the kinkajou reaches for fruit or moves along branches.
This is particularly useful when your entire life takes place several meters above the ground.
Kinkajous are superb climbers, and their bodies are designed for an arboreal lifestyle. Their feet and claws help them grip branches while their flexible bodies allow them to move through complicated networks of vines and branches. They can even move down tree trunks in unusual ways that would make a human climber extremely nervous.
They don't need roads.
They don't need trails.
They have their own highways above your head.
Why you probably don't see them during the day
The tropical forest is full of animals that are almost invisible unless you know when and where to look. Kinkajous are an excellent example.
During the day, there might be one sleeping only a few meters above a hiking trail while dozens of people walk underneath it completely unaware.
The canopy is an enormous three dimensional world. Researchers studying rainforest animals have found that many species spend most of their lives in the treetops, moving along interconnected branches rather than regularly coming down to the forest floor.
That means seeing a kinkajou is partly about luck, but it is also about being in the forest at the right time.
And that is where the night comes in.
Kinkajous around Lost and Found Hostel
One of the particularly exciting things about the forest surrounding Lost and Found Hostel in the mountains of western Panama is that the wildlife does not disappear when the guests go to bed. In fact, the opposite happens.
After sunset, the forest starts changing.
Birds settle down. Daytime animals become quieter. Insects become louder. Frogs begin calling. And animals that most visitors would never see during daylight start moving through the trees.
Kinkajous are sometimes spotted in the trees around Lost and Found, including during the hostel's night walks. Sightings are never guaranteed because these are wild animals living freely in the forest, but when one appears, it can be one of the most memorable wildlife encounters of the entire stay.
Sometimes the animal can be seen moving through branches above the trail or among the trees surrounding the hostel. A flashlight catches the movement, everyone stops, and suddenly the entire group is looking upward trying to figure out what has just appeared.
Then you realize it is a honey bear.
And it is probably considerably more interested in finding dinner than posing for photographs.
The Lost and Found night tour
This is exactly why a night walk through a tropical forest can be so different from a normal daytime hike. During the day, you are looking for birds, butterflies, monkeys and other animals that are active in daylight. At night, the forest becomes a completely different ecosystem.
At Lost and Found, guests sometimes encounter kinkajous during the night tour as they search the surrounding forest for nocturnal wildlife. Kinkajous are not the only animals that may appear after dark. Depending on the night and conditions, the forest can reveal frogs, insects, snakes, spiders, scorpions and various nocturnal mammals.
The exciting part is that nobody can simply promise what will appear.
That is real wildlife.
Sometimes you walk for an hour and see something spectacular almost immediately. Sometimes the most interesting discovery is a tiny creature sitting on a leaf. Sometimes everyone is staring into the trees hoping for a kinkajou and the forest decides to show you something completely different.
That uncertainty is part of the adventure.
Look for the eyes
If you are hoping to see a kinkajou in Panama, one of the most useful things to understand is that you are not necessarily going to spot the whole animal immediately.
In the darkness, the first thing you may notice is movement.
Then perhaps a pair of reflective eyes.
Then a shape.
Then the unmistakable outline of the animal as it moves along a branch.
Kinkajous have large eyes adapted to their nocturnal lifestyle, and a flashlight can sometimes reveal the animal's eyes before the rest of its body becomes visible. Their golden brown fur can also blend remarkably well with branches, leaves and shadows.
This makes the forest feel almost like a treasure hunt.
Except the treasure has a tail.
They are not dangerous monsters
The kinkajou's unusual appearance sometimes causes people to wonder whether it is dangerous. They are wild animals and should always be treated with respect, but they are not large predators looking for humans.
Their world revolves around trees, fruit, flowers, nectar and nighttime exploration.
The best way to observe one is to keep your distance, remain quiet and allow it to continue whatever it was doing before you arrived. The goal of a night walk is not to chase wildlife or force an encounter. It is to enter the forest quietly enough that the animals continue behaving naturally.
That is what makes a genuine sighting so special.
You didn't visit a zoo.
The animal wasn't waiting in an enclosure.
You simply happened to be in the right forest at the right time.
One of Panama's best kept wildlife surprises
Panama has some famous animals that almost every traveler hopes to see. Sloths are famous. Monkeys are famous. Toucans are famous. But the kinkajou is different.
Many people arrive in Panama without even knowing it exists.
Then they see one.
And suddenly they have a new favorite animal.
It is difficult not to understand why. The kinkajou looks almost like a creature invented for a children's movie. It has enormous eyes, soft golden fur, a strange rounded face, a long tail and an impressive ability to disappear into the rainforest canopy.
And then you discover that people call it a honey bear.
That somehow makes it even better.
The real magic happens after sunset
One of the most fascinating things about Panama's forests is realizing that the jungle you see during the day is only half the story.
At sunset, the forest doesn't shut down.
It changes shifts.
And somewhere above the trail, a kinkajou may be waking up, stretching its limbs, wrapping its tail around a branch and beginning another night of searching for fruit and nectar.
Around Lost and Found Hostel, guests occasionally get to witness exactly that transition. A kinkajou moving through the trees near the hostel or appearing during a night walk is the kind of encounter that can turn an ordinary evening into one of those travel stories people continue telling long after they have returned home.
Because you don't really go looking for a honey bear expecting to find one.
You just walk into the darkness, look up into the trees, and sometimes Panama surprises you.