The Raccoon Mascot

MINIX 3 has a mascot: a raccoon. The raccoon was chosen because raccoons are small, agile, intelligent, friendly – and best of all – eat bugs (at least, when there are no garbage cans available). And, being cute doesn't hurt either.

The MINIX 3 raccoon was named Rocky Raccoon by Prof. Andrew Tanenbaum.

I’m inclined to call the mascot “Rocky Racoon” due to the alliteration and the suggestion that “Rocky” sounds spunky. It doesn’t relate to the software but neither do “Tux” or “Beastie.”

(source) - the MINIX 3 team subsequently settled on the more common spelling of “raccoon”.