0:02
Look at those little nose a scope.
0:05
These may look like animals you're familiar with raccoons, but they are not.
0:10
They are quadis, white nose, quadis, about 7 weeks old.
0:14
Two litters of these kits were born right here at the Bavard Zoo.
0:19
We're going to learn all about them today, OK?
0:25
Kwadis are charming and lovable, but many Americans aren't even aware they exist.
0:30
Connecting with them up close is a rare treat.
0:35
Once abundant across the American Southwest, Kwadi populations are in decline, facing ongoing threats of habitat loss and disease.
0:46
To help stabilize their wild populations, the dedicated biologist at the Brevard Zoo in Florida have created a captive breeding program, corralling quadis.
1:00
Quadis are definitely one of my favorites.
1:02
Different from a raccoon who's active mostly at night, these guys are diurnal, so they're active all day long.
1:07
Even when it's hot out, they're busy foraging.
1:12
We're going to take one of these little guys out to get a check up.
1:16
So their moms would typically hold them by the back of their necks to move them between nest spots.
1:21
So This is why they kind of relax when we do this.
1:23
Similar to a kitten or a puppy?
1:25
Sure.
1:26
Yeah, sure.
1:27
It's interesting to see him cover his nose.
1:30
That's how they sleep pretty often.
1:33
The name Guatis comes from an indigenous language of South America and loosely translates to Nose belly, referring to the adorable way these creatures sleep with their snouts tucked to their stomachs.
1:45
And there the Mr.
1:46
Nose Belly, Let's go.
1:49
This is actually the first time in seven years in any North American zoo that there has been Kawati babies.
1:55
Successfully breeding Kawati's in captivity is tricky.
1:59
These creatures have intricate social dynamics and habitat needs.
2:03
After careful study, the biologists at Brevard Zoo figured it out by giving these curious critters an ideal social setup to thrive.
2:12
This is great.
2:13
Yeah.
2:14
So this actually is where the babies were born.
2:16
Part of why it's successful is we brought them to their own space.
2:21
My big boy, it's been a lot of work and we learned so much about their behavior.
2:27
What we found with these guys by monitoring them on camera is that they don't have all their babies at one time.
2:32
They could have one baby and then three days later they could have two others.
2:36
So we're like, OK, this is a Kwadi thing and something that probably nobody knows and you all figured it out.
2:43
The kits are the hugest success we could have asked for.
2:46
And those animals will go off to other zoos, be paired up with other animals to breed and increase the population.
2:57
Like humans, kawatis are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals.
3:02
They enjoy wide-ranging habitats but like to live in forests, the best in dense jungles of Central and South America.
3:10
Kawatis feast on fruits and lizards and even eggs.
3:14
Over 3000 miles away in the southwestern United States, the climate is much different.
3:21
This is the Sonoran Desert.
3:23
Here, water and food are scarce, but kawatis have adapted just fine.
3:28
I'm here in southern Arizona in what is pretty obviously the desert.
3:34
And man, does it feel like that.
3:36
We've got the sand, we've got the arid environment.
3:38
We even have cacti all around us, but I'm not going to be staying in this area.
3:43
I'm searching for Kawati, which are going to be somewhere a little different.
3:47
I'm headed up to those mountains, one of the most remote and unique parts of the United States.
3:54
They're called the sky islands.
3:57
The sky islands aren't traditional islands.
4:00
They're actually high elevation mountain peaks up to 9000 feet and completely different ecosystems than what we find down here.
4:08
One of the main features is permanent water.
4:12
It's green, it's lush, and when the monsoons come, there's water everywhere.
4:18
This is the perfect time to find Kawati because they're devoid of water in places like this, and they're more likely to congregate up in the sky islands.
4:26
I'm teaming up with research historians Janine Hernbroad and GAIL Todd.
4:31
They've explored these mountains for decades, and they've uncovered clues about the region that were left behind by native Hohokan people who once lived here.
4:41
We know that these people had special relationships with animals, and they put the images of the animals that were important to them on the rocks as part of their religious experience.
4:57
GAIL guides me up into the mountains to an undisclosed location to show me a window into the past.
5:04
We're headed up to this red dot, so it would be best for us to go up this way.
5:08
Getting a little steep in elevation a little bit.
5:16
This is it's right here.
5:17
Oh, my gosh, it is right here.
5:21
Wow.
5:23
These ancient symbols carved into rocks are called petroglyphs.
5:26
They seem to depict nose bellied creatures.
5:29
Could these be Kawatis?
5:31
Tell me if I'm seeing this properly.
5:33
It almost seems like there's a few images here.
5:36
If you look at the ears on this.
5:38
Ears right up here, yes.
5:41
And then if you look at the face, it has that point of face.
5:45
Yeah.
5:45
It's a triangular shape, correct?
5:48
Yeah, with almost a little snout.
5:50
So that's exactly what Kawatis look like.
5:52
Exactly.
5:52
It has that lovely tail and then over here it looks like there might be partial Kawati.
5:58
You can see the four legs, head and a straight tail.
6:01
So we might have a troop instead of 1 lone Kawati.
6:06
So how old might these rock images be?
6:10
We're looking probably about 1000 years old, give or take a couple 100 years.
6:16
But we do know the time period that the Holcomb lived here and we know these are Holcomb.
6:21
This is really something.
