Why the name "gato solo"?

Coati Mundis are these funky raccoon-like creatures that roam Panama City.  They're fearless, omnivorous, and kinda cute.

The first time I saw some of them heading off into the woods, I asked a guy "¿Qué era ese animal? (What was that animal?), and he said, "Es un gato solo".  

I thought he didn't actually see what I saw, because (a) it wasn't a cat ["gato"], and (b) they weren't alone ["solo"].

A collage of gato solos foraging outside the church I attend.

However, "gato solo" is truly what everyone here calls the animal, at least in Spanish.  I've since learned the name English speakers use is "coati mundi" (except when using "gato solo" because of following local customs).  But that still begs the question, where does the name "gato solo" come from?

Recently I heard an explanation that I love so much, I'm not even going to check to see whether it's true. I'm just going to share it with you.

When European and North American biologists first came to tropical America and saw these creatures, they thought they were two different kinds of animals: two different species that looked quite similar but had very different behaviors. There were the animals that traveled in packs, and the biologist dubbed these "Mundis". There were other animals that looked the same, but traveled by themselves, and the biologist called them "Coatis".

Later, the biologist discovered that the animals traveling in packs were groups of females who had kicked out the males, readmitting them only when they needed them for procreative purposes. The males didn't form groups; they just waited for a chance to form brief alliances with the females that might result in offpring.  That is, the Mundis were females, and the Coatis were males. It was all one species: the Coati Mundi.

A "mundi", grabbing food out of a hanging tray on the balcony of my AirBnB.

And in this single species of Coati Mundis, the males got access to the larger groups only when they were successful at their lone endeavors, aka when they were "tom catting" in U.S. slang, or "solo catting" in the local parlance.

A coati on the same porch, 
possibly hoping to connect tom-cat style
with a group of mundis.  

And that, a U.S. expat told me, is how Gato Solos got their name.  I'm going to treasure this explanation without regard to any verification of its historical accuracy.