Ring-tailed cats

Anybody ever see them? I've only seen 3 in the wild in my life. One was dead in the middle of the road about 20 years ago, then last year I saw 2 alive at the deer lease just across the county road from the rancher's house.

One of the guys saw them at the same place but wasn't sure what they were until I told him I had seen ring-tails there. He went home and looked them up and confirmed that was what he'd seen too. His first impression was they looked sorta like coons.

After I told the rancher about them he went over to the neighbors property and found their den under an old rock wall. Sorry, no photos, just this Wiki link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringtail_cat

Anybody else seen them? Got trail cam photos, video, ect?

Grew up in the hill country...saw them all the time. Many times you see them in pairs. Neat little critters.

Got bunches of them out here in West Texas. Sometimes see them in some of my barns. They are neat little critters, but they can get mean pretty quickly if you corner them or catch them in a trap.

I never have seen one but I saw one of these for the first time last summer... also in the hill country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati

Used to see a lot of them years ago in Mason county. Every year they would nest in our towers. Then one year they disappeared. That was about 7 or 8 years ago and haven't seen one since.

saw one in highshcool when we were spotlighting varmints.

Saw my first one last year - very cool.

From way back in the day.

I saw one many years ago in an old farmhouse at a lease. Really up close and personal, about 2 ft above my head on a closet shelf eating a large rat. It jumped out of the closet past my chest and went out the window leaving me shakin and wet. They have long teeth when there's still blood drippin from em.

I saw one in east texas this fall. No one believes me but he was running down the road infront of my truck for about 100 yards about 0100 hrs. No doubt that it was a ringtail. The banks on the side of the road are high so he didnt have a choice but to run and i got a good look. Ive seen them in South Texas but never here. They were logging the area and I think he was having to move. Nacogdoches County

Trapped about a jillion of the stinky little bastages when I was younger. We used to get 5-7 a piece for their hides back in the 80s but I doubt they even buy them now. IMO, they are a big time PITA! I've had them 'break' into my blinds and make a damn big mess several times during the off season and once they make it their 'home' the only way to get rid of them is a bullet!

I have a blind named after the ringtail that lives in it.lol
That ringtail and Texas Lefty are pals.

I see them from time to time around Jack Co. Their eyes really glow under a spotlight.

man i been tryin to kill a nice lookin ringtail for a full body mount for a while! awesome lookin little critters

had them come into the call at night before..IMO they look like a coon with the mannerisms of a fox

ac

...why do I hear the music from the "Good, the Bad and the Ugly" when I see that picture?

Weird huh?

That picture's funny! I have some just about like it, it's funny how you can just look at it and tell it was taken years ago... I'd bet that is about 1985 give or take a couple of years.

Ok went back and looked bet it's more like the early 90's
and looks like west Texas somewhere near Odessa???

I grew up in the hill country as well. Sons tons of them. Killed tons of them. I made a lot of money on fur during the winters and ringtails were the one furbearer that the prices stayed consistent on during that time....about $7 each. I just shot them with a 22 in the head and it was really hard to kill them with one shot. Their skull is really tough. They have a very strong musky smell. They are not very big. The area around Johnson City is loaded with them.

Shot one in terlingua. 2 years ago.

Find them a lot out here in SW Tex too. To me they are the product of an illicit relationship between a coon and a weasel. Filthy buggers. Ya don't see them too often because they are big time nocturnal.

I do know that D-Con rat posion pellets will NOT kill them, but does give them greenish blue runs that the deposit all over mattresses in bunkhouses.

Old post but saw my first one on thermal Thursday night then in daylight today at dawn. Found this searching for what it was. North Texas close to OK.

use to see in the hill country, haven't seen one in years

Used to see them around Christoval back in the 60's. Back then flashlights were only a little better than a kerosene lamp, very hard to shoot one of those skinny things overhead in a tall pecan tree with the wind blowing when you only have a 22.

We used to kill a lot of them when we hunted the contest at Sheffield. They were fun to watch. It seemed like they would always crawl up in a cactus or bush and stop at the top of it to look at you before getting shot in the face.

Had one this morning. Opened the hood of the ranch truck to reconnect the battery and had a ring tail cat stairing at me. Also had one last year in my blind. I made so much noise trying to get it out of the blind I figured hunting was a bust. My daughter ended up shooting a nice 8 pointer 30 minutes later.

We have many at our lease. It's between Brady and Llano.

I've never seen on in the wild....

Murdered a lot of them roosting in blinds in Val Verde County. Nasty little buggers. Me and the outfitter were feeding once and one came out of the blind and was staring at us from the corner of the blind's roof. Had a Rossi .357 lever action and the the outfitter took a shot, missed the ringtail but took of a big chunk of roof. Stupid ringtail came back and stood on his hind legs to look and I shot him hitting him, square in the chest, with a 125 gr, semi-jacketed, .357 mag, hollow point. He did an Olympic class back flip completely off of the blind.

I heard they make very kool pets.....

I raised a coon....had a buddy raise a skunk...he would walk it thru the highschool halls on a leash like a dog....it was very kool pet....

They used to call them miners cats. I'd hate to try to make a pet out of one. Every one I've ever seen looked kind of mean.

Used to see them all the time around Blum. Our coon dogs wouldn't full with them for some reason. Most all I ever came in contact with smelled like a skunk.

my buddy told me to hunt a stand where he said he opened the door and a ringtail was sitting in the chair and ran out and down his arm when he opened the door. I wasn't sure I believed him until I opened the door and a ringtail was right there. So I just froze and let him run down my arm and down the ladder! It's the only Ringtail I've ever seen before or since!

plenty here in oak bottoms...
they will keep mice in check in a hunting cabin, tho...
their musk is not offensive to me, either...
sold plenty of their fur in 70s.

I grew up in the Hill Country and they were fairly common there. We had some property in Goldthwaite also and they were all over that place, especially around rock outcroppings.

yep, grew up headlighting around central TX in the '60s-'80s ... hard little boogers to find if you hit em with a white light, switched to red lens and they would stare at you walk up really close. One particular ranch had a lot of rocks, cracks, crevices and caves, it was loaded with ringtails. Their scent gland is similar to a skunk but not near as strong of a smell.

We have a regular at our barn that eats cat food. Probably every night. I won't let anyone shoot one here, they are like our little grey foxes. Good little mousers and don't hurt any livestock except maybe a chicken once in a while when my wife doesn't close their coup door.

we've got a resident ring tail that stays in either the old out house or the storage shed at my lease cabin - I've named him Steve. Other than the terds he leaves all over the storage shed me and Steve have worked out an understanding. He kills ALL of the rodents around the cabin and I let him do his thing. I'll walk into the shed during the day to get something and he just stares at me while I grab whatever I need. Occasionally I toss him some steak leftovers to let him know we're still good.

I see them fairly often. In the Hill Country and used to be lots of them around Devine in the Post Oaks. Had one as a pet when I was a kid and I must say of all the critters that I raised, this may have been the best pet of all. My Dear Mother even loved this one.
Adios,
Gary