It has been treated as a species, but the vast majority of recent authorities treat it as a subspecies of the white-nosed coati.[1][2][3][4] Cozumel Island coatis are slightly smaller than the white-nosed coatis of the adjacent mainland (N. n. yucatanica); but, when compared more widely to white-nosed coatis, the difference in size is not as clear.[5] The level of other differences also support its status as a subspecies rather than a separate species.[5]