What Red Ringed Tail Animal Looks Like a Fox

Ring-tailed cat, miners cat, bassarisk, cacomistle; the ringtail ( Bassariscus astutus ) goes by many names. A ringtail by whatsoever name is merely equally cute.

As Rosemary Stussy, a retired Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist once put information technology, "on a scale of one to 10, their cuteness factor is a 15."

"Cat" likely came into many of the common names for ringtails in office because ringtails are almost the size of a house cat and in part because, as legend has information technology, gilt rush era miners once enticed ringtails to live in their cabins every bit pet mousers.

But the ringtail is not a relative of the cat. And though its scientific name is based on an aboriginal Greek term for fob (βασσάρα), it is not a relative of the pull a fast one on either. Information technology is — as you may have guessed by the lovely long, ringed tail — more closely related to the raccoon. Both are members of the Procyonid family.

How to Spot a Ringtail

You lot may know ringtails as a desert southwest species (state mammal of Arizona), only ringtails accept a much wider range. They can be found all the fashion up the west coast into southwestern Oregon and northeast every bit far equally Oklahoma.

Ringtails are nocturnal, solitary, and sparsely populated throughout their range — factors that tin can make them a challenge to see in the wild. Watch for them at dark in trees and shrubs most riparian areas (close to rivers and streams). Around February through May, when ringtails are breeding, you could take hold of sight of them during daylight hours.

Ringtail in Arizona. Photo © Robertbody CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — Ringtail in Arizona. © Robertbody CC Past-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Your best chance of seeing ringtails is at parks and preserves in the U.S. Southwest. Campsites in Grand Canyon National Park are frequently raided by crafty ringtails. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is another ringtail hotspot. Arizona has many birding lodges that put up an array of feeders, and these can attract other wild fauna including ringtails. This is how I saw my offset ringtails recently near Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon (non to mention a coati and several bird species).

Though they are best known as shy creatures of forests, deserts and rocky areas, ringtails arrange well to living in disturbed areas and are frequently found about man-made buildings. You could have a ringtail living in your k — they've rarely been known to testify upward in an attic.

"I found near six dens using radio-tracking equipment," Stussy says. "None were upward in trees. They were either down in a hole under a log or between boulders below the loftier-water mark of a lake – they would employ the den in the summertime when the water was low."

If y'all tin't run into a ringtail in the wild, it'due south worth visiting a zoo to see one upwards shut. The Oregon Zoo was abode to ringtail kits last year.

Ringtail Tales

Ringtails are unusually cannibal for a Procyonid. The majority of their nutrition comes from creature matter (rodents, rabbits, squirrels, insects, birds, reptiles, frogs and carrion!). Ringtails do have a sweetness tooth and swallow fruit and nectar when available in the wild – Stussy attracted them to camera traps was with a mixture of raisins, jam, and a commercial "ringtail lure."

Ringtails are sometimes prey to larger predators like great-horned owls, bobcats and coyotes.

When threatened the ringtail bristles the pilus on its tail and arches it over its dorsum to make itself appear larger (possibly some other reason for the cat comparison). As a final line of defense, ringtails will release a foul-smelling secretion and scream at a high pitch.

"They're easily spooked," says Stussy. "e'er jumping to the side. Their main predator is the great horned owl and I've seen video of a fisher making off with one in the snowfall. They have to lookout out higher up and beneath."

Ringtail at Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Photo © Pixelfugue (Own work) CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — Ringtail at Phantom Ranch, Chiliad Canyon National Park, Arizona. © Pixelfugue CC Past three.0, via Wikimedia Eatables

Mammals from ringtails to lemurs to tigers have rings on their tails, but the evolutionary do good of this trait is not fully understood. It is thought that arboreal, nocturnal mammals similar the ringtail might employ their tails for communication. Some as well hypothesize that it is a kind of camouflage or at least a distraction so that if predators do assail a ringtail, they are more likely to catch the readily visible tail, missing vital organs and giving the ringtail a hazard to escape.

Ringtails do posture with their tail. Stussy saw in camera trap footage that ringtails sometimes raise their tail like a skunk in what looks like an aggressive gesture or arch information technology prettily over their back.

"They employ their tail similar a squirrel for balancing," Stussy explains. "They can climb like crazy."

This ringtail has found a good den spot in a tree. Photo © Daniel Neal, CC BY 2.0 — This ringtail has found a good den spot in a tree. Photograph © Daniel Neal, CC BY ii.0

Ringtails are top notch acrobats. In improver to the help from their tails, they have semi-retractable claws to go a proficient grip on rocks or tree branches and their hind anxiety can rotate at least 180 degrees – assuasive them to rapidly climb caput-first down copse and rock faces.

Other incredible climbing behaviors include "chimney stemming" (i.due east. pressing their feet against one wall and their dorsum against another like the Grinch climbing upward a chimney), "ricocheting" like a video game character bouncing back and forth betwixt more distant walls, and "ability leaping" accurately across large distances.

Conservation Needs

The IUCN classifies ringtails equally least concern for conservation because of their wide distribution and ability to suit to human being inhabited areas. However, there is express information on population densities and trends beyond their range, which makes information technology difficult to assess conservation needs.

"What is their range? Is it expanding or contracting? It would have a lot of endeavor to find out. Their home ranges are very minor," Stussy explains. "It needs more piece of work similar a lot of things. I hate to remember of ringtails going the style of the fisher and nobody'south fifty-fifty looking at them to know information technology."

ODFW biologist Rosemary Stussy takes measurements on a ringtail before fitting it with a radio collar. Photo © ODFW — ODFW biologist Rosemary Stussy takes measurements on a ringtail before plumbing fixtures information technology with a radio collar. Photograph © ODFW

Efforts are underway in Oregon to ameliorate methods of assessing ringtail density equally part of the Oregon Conservation Strategy. Stussy's research initiated an endeavor to create a consistent ringtail monitoring protocol for Oregon using camera traps. Progress has been irksome in part because it is currently unclear whether a low number of sightings in an area is a sign that there are low numbers of ringtails or that the protocol has failed for some other reason (like bears stealing the ringtail bait).

"My work generated a lot of interest," Stussy says. "One article in the newspaper led to about a hundred calls from people who wanted to study seeing them."

I promising surface area for future ringtail research is citizen science. If citizens could capture an image of a ringtail and written report the sighting to a centralized database, that would provide far more information for the range and abundance of ringtails in the US than biologists are currently able to capture on their own.

There is not yet, to my knowledge, a defended ringtail citizen science projection. In the meantime, you can report your ringtail (and other nature) sightings to iNaturalist.