Arizona State Mammal: Ringtail

Nature, State Animals 4 Minutes

Ringtails are cat-like mammals that are related to raccoons. Many people also call them “ringtail cats,” “ring-tailed cats,” “bassarisks,” and “miner’s cats.” While they are not genetically related to cats, they do look quite similar to felines. Instead, ringtails are in the Procyonidae family, along with raccoons, kinkajous, coatis, and olingos.

Description of the Ringtail

These cat-like mammals have buff-brown fur, with relatively large ears, and a long tail. As their name suggests, their tail has black and white rings, much like raccoons and coatis have.

Their tail is usually just as long as their body, between 12 and 17 in. long. With body and tail combined, ringtails measure around 24 – 34 in. long. However, they are lean creatures, and typically weigh around 2 lbs.

Interesting Facts About the Ringtail

Ringtails are interesting looking creatures, with interesting behavior and traits. There are a number of different fun facts about ringtails, read a few below!

Miner’s Cat – One of the more unusual nicknames of the ringtail is the miner’s cat. During the 1800s, miners in Arizona and California commonly kept these creatures as pets. Apparently, the miners were quite fond of their ringtail companions because they were wonderfully efficient mouse catchers!

Musky Mouthful– Ringtails are usually smaller than the average housecat, and half of their length is tail alone. Because of this, they commonly fall prey to many different predators. To avoid becoming lunch, ringtails excrete a strong-smelling musk when startled. This musk confuses and deters many different predators.

Cat-Like Climbers – Ringtails may look a little like cats, but they sure can climb better than most housecats! They can rotate their ankles over 180º, which allows them to climb up and down trees easily. Ringtails can even change direction on a branch by doing a cartwheel!

Striped Tail – This mammal’s long tail is not just for show. While their tail is not prehensile, and they cannot use it to grip branches, it is still quite useful. Ringtails use their tails to help them balance while climbing. Because their tail is so long, it works very efficiently as a counterbalance.

Habitat of the Ringtail

While these creatures live in a few different types of habitats, they live in arid environments most frequently. Rocky deserts are their favorite, but they also live in desert-like habitats near water sources. In these ecosystems, they nest in abandoned structures, mineshafts, hollow trees, caves, and more. These mammals also live in pine, conifer, and juniper forests with low rainfall.

Distribution of the Ringtail

Ringtails live in the Southwestern United States and across Mexico. Populations live in southern Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, parts of Kansas, and Texas.

Its range in Mexico is from the United States border south to Oaxaca. They are widespread in Mexico, but their distribution in the northern ends of their range is rather spotty.

Diet of the Ringtail

Ringtails are omnivores, but most of their diet consists of animals rather than plants. Their primary prey includes mice, rats, rabbits, ground squirrels, insects, and other small mammals.

Some less common food sources include fish, snakes, birds, lizards, and carrion. They also eat fruit, and some of their favorites include prickly pear, juniper, blackberries, hack, persimmon, and more. Their diet changes based upon the availability of food, for example, when mice are plentiful, they eat more mice.

Ringtail and Human Interaction

Humans and ringtails actually lived quite harmoniously. Because miners recognized their ability to catch mice and other pests, they often kept the creatures as pets.

Nowadays, it is illegal to own a ringtail as a pet without proper permits, though humans still acknowledge them as pest control. As with any animal, habitat destruction can be a problem, but their population is stable. The IUCN lists these animals as Least Concern.

Domestication

Though humans commonly kept these creatures as pets, they never formally domesticated ringtails.

Does the Ringtail Make a Good Pet

Ringtails did make good pets to miners, but that was because there were plenty of vermin for them to hunt. In a typical household, ringtails would not make good pets, simply because there wouldn’t be enough for them to do.

These creatures are wild animals, and when miners kept them as pets, they slept during the day, and hunted for vermin at night. Their relationship was really more of a partnership than anything. The miners provided safe nests to sleep in, and the ringtails hunted the pesky mice.

Ringtail Care

In zoos, ringtails need a little more stimulation, because they can’t exactly let them out to hunt mice at night. Instead, the zookeepers give the little predators a variety of puzzles, new scents, and fun toys, as well as training them using positive reinforcement.

These animals eat a diet of small mammals, like mice, rats, rabbits, and more. Because their natural diet also contains fruit, zookeepers give them a variety of fruits as treats. Their habitats have plenty of hiding places, and a variety of objects to climb and exercise on.

Behavior of the Ringtail

These little mammals are relatively similar to their raccoon cousins. They are nocturnal and active at night, and live alone. Unlike raccoons, ringtails are relatively shy, and avoid human contact.

Rather than roaming suburbs for garbage, these creatures actively spend their nights hunting small prey. They spend the rest of their time marking the boundaries of their territories. Males and females have overlapping territories, but they rarely interact outside of breeding season.

Reproduction of the Ringtail

Females are only receptive to mates in the spring. After mating, the male brings the female food during her 45 – 50 day gestation period. The female usually gives birth to 2 – 4 offspring, called “cubs.”

It takes a month for the cubs to open their eyes, and they will not learn to hunt until they are 4 months old. Once the cubs are 10 months old, they can reproduce themselves, and leave their mother.

SOURCE: ANIMALS.NET

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Published by pat frederick

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177 thoughts on “Arizona State Mammal: Ringtail”

  1. I just remembered something from when my GS was here a couple of days ago. He works with a guy whose last name is Novotny and I commented that I had dated a guy with that last name when I was just starting to get interested in boys. I guess I was around 13 or 14, maybe. When I said his first name, he told me that is his co-worker’s Dad! Indeed, NE is a very small world for me!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. interesting theory

    Belle

    February 15, 2024 2:41 pm

    While everyone is enjoying the titillating details of the Fani Willis case, had anyone pondered a much more devious motivation for pursuing her affair details in court?

    Could it be that after the GA prosecutors office got a look at the discovery materials from the defense, that they decided it would not be good for all that proof of fraud to be aired right before the 2024 election?

    The way to make sure that that evidence doesn’t come out and to make sure that it is not on the basis of quashing evidence of fraud, was to air the shenanigans of Wade and Willis.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I call BS on all of this!!!

    Just The News: “The White House on Thursday confirmed that Russia has obtained an emerging anti-satellite weapon, but said it cannot directly cause “physical destruction” on Earth directly. 

    This confirmation comes after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner urged President Biden to declassify information related to a “serious national security threat.” 

    White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the weapon is not fully operational and U.S. officials are looking into the information they have on it. 

    “First this is not an active capability that’s been deployed and though Russia’s pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety,” Kirby said, according to The Associated Press.

     “We’re not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on earth,” he added.”

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Just The News: “Prior to special counsel Robert Hur’s report going public last week, the White House wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland objecting to the comments on President Joe Biden’s memory.

    Hur’s report did not recommend charges against Biden over his handling of classified materials, but did note that the president appeared forgetful during his interview and had trouble recalling basic details about his life. 

    Prior to the report’s release, the White House was permitted to review a draft and both White House Counsel Ed Siskel and Biden personal attorney Bob Bauer objected to the report’s contents. In a letter to Garland obtained by Politico, Siskel wrote that Hur “openly, obviously, and blatantly” violated Department of Justice policies by including such comments.

    The DOJ defended the report to both the following day.

    Hur wrote in his report that he had “uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen” but ultimately opted against charges. He attributed the decision, in part, to concerns that “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Beautiful, isn’t she??? I’ve always loved the idea of working with animals like that but I just don’t have the patience required for that.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Bummer! We didn’t get any more precip and didn’t get out of the 30’s – what little snow we had was gone earlier after the sun came out for a while.

      Liked by 1 person

  19. Awww! How anyone can not fall in love with that face, is beyond me!!!

    “The Kalachakra Mandala” NF: I have no idea!!! Do you know what a Mandala is?

    Re-purposing writ large!

    Liked by 1 person

  23. most of the coverage of the fani trial is videos…but from the headlines, it seems the judge is giving her a lot of leeway. normally don’t they tell witnesses to answer the question without all the commentary? she sounds like she editorializing a lot…

    Like

  24. “Special counsel charges ex-FBI informant with lying about Hunter Biden’s dealings with Burisma — Authorities detained Smirnov at Harry Reid International Airport on Thursday.”

    By Ben Whedon, Just The News

    Published: February 15, 2024 5:00 pm

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Special counsel David Weiss on Thursday charged ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov over allegedly lying about the Biden family’s involvement with Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy firm at the center of an alleged bribery scheme.

    Authorities detained Smirnov at Harry Reid International Airport on Thursday, CNN reported. He is expected in court later the same day.

    Burisma has been under scrutiny for corruption for many years and last year was at the center of an alleged bribery scheme in which a Burisma executive allegedly hired Hunter Biden to secure access to his then-vice president father, and paid $5 million to two members of the Biden family to stifle a probe from then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company.

    An unclassified FBI FD-1023 containing confidential human source information became public in July of last year detailing the alleged effort. The Bidens have denied wrongdoing.”

    Liked by 1 person

  25. T. Turtle

    T. Turtle

    February 15, 2024 5:28 pm

    I have never seen a so-called professional attorney and District Attorney act this way. She acted like a petulant teenager.

    “I Am Not a Hostile Witness!” – BREAKING: A Defiant Fani Willis Takes the Witness Stand – Rambles About Her Relationship with Nathan Wade – Shouts at Prosecutor (VIDEO)”

    Fani Willis took the witness stand on Thursday, and she was hostile, arrogant, and defiant!

    BIG FANI IS BIG MAD:

    “No! No! No! Look! I OBJECT to you getting records. You’ve been intrusive into people’s personal lives. You’re confused. You think I’m on trial? THESE people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020.

    she also said to the attorney, “Cute, you think you’re being cute but you’re not”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/i-am-not-hostile-witness-breaking-defiant-fani/

    Like

  41. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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