Police officers in North Richland Hills, Texas, recently received an unusual call about an animal spotted outside a local pizza restaurant.
According to FOX 4, the caller wasn’t quite sure what they had seen and described the mystery creature as possibly being a “kangaroo or monkey.”
Officers Davis and Johnson headed to the area near MOD Pizza to investigate.
When they arrived, they found the little animal tucked into the shade beside a trash can, apparently trying to escape the intense Texas heat.
The officers carefully wrapped her in a towel and checked her over for injuries.
It quickly became clear that she wasn’t a kangaroo — and she wasn’t a monkey either.
After doing some research, police identified the unexpected visitor as a kinkajou, a rainforest mammal native to Central and South America.
“We all know that this certainly isn’t a rainforest …” the North Richland Hills Police Department joked in a Facebook post. “Soooo, anyone missing a kinkajou?”
The officers transported her to the North Richland Hills Animal Services Center, where she was able to cool down and rest.
She was later transferred to Nature’s Edge Wildlife and Reptile Rescue, whose team could provide more specialized care.
Kinkajous are sometimes called “honey bears,” though they are actually related to raccoons. They have long tongues that help them reach nectar and other foods, and they are naturally adapted to life high in tropical forest canopies.
Finding one wandering around suburban Texas was therefore especially unusual.
The World Wildlife Fund considers kinkajous particularly difficult animals to care for in captivity because of their specialized behavioral and environmental needs.
Wildlife rescuers believe the female found in North Richland Hills had most likely been living in captivity before somehow getting loose.
“She most likely escaped or was somehow released from captivity,” Nature’s Edge Wildlife and Reptile Rescue wrote in an update. “She certainly did not wander into a North Richland Hills pizza restaurant from the rainforest!”
At the rescue center, staff prepared a secure space for their unusual new arrival and supplied her with plenty of food and water.
She didn’t take long to start showing off her personality.
Kinkajous communicate with a variety of sounds, and rescuers say she has already been expressing herself through plenty of hisses, grunts and growls.
“She’s already letting us know exactly what she thinks of certain things!” the rescue wrote. “This little honey bear is definitely a character, and we’re looking forward to getting to know her better.”
For now, the mystery of exactly how she ended up outside a Texas pizza shop remains unsolved.
But thanks to the officers and wildlife rescuers who stepped in, the unexpected little visitor is safe, comfortable and finally receiving the care she needs.