Ringtail

About the ringtail

The ringtail is a mammal of the raccoon family native to the arid regions of North America. Its Latin name, Bassariscus astutus, translates roughly to "clever little fox," a nod to its pointed muzzle and long whiskers, though its body shape resembles a cat's. It's also known by several other names, including ring-tailed cat, miner's cat, civet cat, and cacomistle — though despite those names, it is only distantly related to true cats and civets. It is the state mammal of Arizona.

Smaller than a house cat, the ringtail is one of the smallest living members of the procyonid family (only the smallest species in the olingo group average smaller). Its body measures 12 to 17 inches, with a tail of about the same length, bringing the animal's total length close to double its body size. It typically weighs 1.5 to 3.3 pounds. The fur is black to dark brown with pale underparts, and dark brown and black hair around the eyes gives the face a masked appearance. Its trademark feature is a long, black-and-white ringed tail with 14 to 16 stripes — nearly as long as the rest of its body — which it uses for balance and, when threatened, as a decoy: predators that grab for the pale rings rather than the body give the ringtail a better chance to escape.

Ringtails are primarily nocturnal, with large eyes and upright ears suited to navigating in the dark. They are agile climbers, helped by short, straight, semi-retractable claws and an ankle joint that can rotate more than 180 degrees — a flexibility that lets them cartwheel to reverse direction on narrow ledges. To move through tight spaces, they can "stem," pressing all feet against one wall and their back against another, or ricochet between the walls of wider openings.

Behavior and diet

Adult ringtails are largely solitary, coming together mainly to mate. They communicate with a loud, plaintive bark along with clicks and chatters reminiscent of raccoons, and ringtails have been reported to use fecal marking as a way to help define territory boundaries — a 2003 study in Mexico City found ringtails tended to defecate in similar areas in a seemingly nonrandom pattern, similar to other carnivores that scent-mark territory with waste. Ringtails will share a den or groom one another occasionally, but interaction outside the spring breeding season is limited. Their urine is more concentrated than that of any other mammal studied, letting them survive for long periods on water obtained purely from food.

The species is omnivorous, though the majority of its diet is animal matter. Small vertebrates — birds, rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits, snakes, lizards, frogs, and toads — are especially important food sources in winter. Insects and berries make up a large share of the diet year-round and become the dominant food source in spring and summer, along with other fruit such as juniper, hackberries, persimmon, and prickly pear. Ringtails will also eat fish, carrion, and, occasionally, food left in birdseed or hummingbird feeders. A scat study on Isla San José in Baja California Sur found the diet shifted with seasonal abundance — insects showed up in about half of spring feces, alongside small rodents, snakes, and lizards, while plant matter appeared in nearly 60 percent of samples, with ironwood fruit a particular favorite.

Mating occurs in spring, after a gestation period of 45 to 50 days during which the male brings food to the female. Litters contain 2 to 4 kits, which open their eyes after a month and begin hunting for themselves at four months old. They reach sexual maturity at 10 months, and the species' lifespan in the wild is about seven years.

Range and habitat

Ringtails are found throughout arid North America, most commonly in rocky desert habitat where they den in tree hollows or abandoned wooden structures. Their range covers the Great Basin Desert across Nevada, Utah, California, Idaho, and Oregon, the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico. In the United States, they range through southern Oregon, California, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, southern Nevada, Utah, Louisiana, and Texas; in Mexico, from Baja California in the north to Oaxaca in the south. They favor rocky terrain near water, including riparian canyons, caves, and mine shafts. Where water is abundant, densities can reach as high as 50 ringtails per square mile, with male territories ranging from 50 to 100 acres and sometimes overlapping those of several females.

Conservation status

The ringtail is listed as Least Concern (LC) globally on the IUCN Red List. It is nonetheless a Conservation Strategy Species in Oregon and is fully protected in California. It has historically been trapped for its fur, though the pelt isn't especially valuable and trapping has slowed considerably; current population sizes and growth trends remain unclear. Natural predators include foxes, coyotes, raccoons, bobcats, hawks, and owls — mainly targeting younger, more vulnerable animals — with the great horned owl and red-tailed hawk singled out as its main predators. The ringtail defends itself by excreting musk when startled or threatened.