Ringtail Discovery 🖤

Melany is the only friend where I have scared the sh*t out of her with my screams of seeing a ringtail cat! 

Seriously, the first time it happened she nearly drove off the road  coming out of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. 

We are driving along in peace when all of a sudden on the dark road illuminated by her Jeeps headlights appeared a ringtail darting across the road. 

Immediately I screamed. 

Mel jerked the Jeep.

Thankfully, it crossed the road safely.

Melany still has never let me forget that moment or the screams thereafter. 

Why all the excitement over a furry little mammal that looks like small fox mixed with weasel? 

First, these mammals are rare to see and spot. 

Second, they are too darn cute. 

Sadly, they are freely hunted here in Texas. 

It is the one mammal I was hoping to confirm during my wildlife monitoring at 3 Rivers Foundation. While rocky habitat abounds along those 3RF creeks a ringtail never made an appearance amongst the 600,000 plus camera trap images. I remember Jeff, the astronomer, who brought me on board, was hoping tracks he discovered on the main campus were ringtail tracks but alas they were of a rodent taking a night saunter. 

To my surprise recently I saw this guy standing the corner. No, thankfully I didn’t scream inside the office.

The story goes as I was getting a phone number in the Gaines County USDA FSA office, I noticed this taxidermy mount in the corner. There had to be a backstory. Immediately I asked. 

Here’s the story. 

About thirty years ago in the Denver City, Texas  area this little guy was seen dead on the side of the road. The lady helping me said her fiancé’s dad salvaged it and mounted it. While the engagement didn’t turn into a marriage, she kept the ringtail. She even puts a Christmas bow around its neck during the holiday season. 

Why does this amaze me that a ringtail was crossing the road in Yoakum County, Texas? Biologically habitat wise it was not supposed to be present. Rocks are shallow at best in the upper layer of the soils in this county. Yoakum basically is covered in nothing but sandy soils. Those sandy soils are habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken and the Sand Dune Lizard, not for a ringtail cat that needs rocky spaces and trees. 

Begs this reflection. Thirty years ago what we know about a ringtail’s habitat was it overlooked? Did they love sand baths and found the low growing shinnery oak as an ideal cover  being able to eat ripen acorns without ever being noticed? Did they co-exist with the Prairie. Chickens as they serenaded them to sleep? 

Yes, while I did not scream. I did pet it. 

My conservation mind wonders at the unknowns of this rare find of a ringtail cat in Yoakum County who wears a Christmas bow every year.