Ringtails

[DUKFVR]

We would get pics of some every once in a while at our place in San Saba.

[DRT]

I've never found a reason to kill one. Yes, they will eat quail, turkey, chicken and duck eggs. But they are cool little critters.
Then again I've trapped mine and ermine so I guess it's not much difference.

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[RifleBowPistol]

Ringtails are fairly common in the hill country, they exist in south Texas, but I don't think they are very common in most of south Texas, but there are probably some areas, that have a good population of them. I don't know about the rest of the state.

All my years of living and hunting in south Texas, I only saw one, I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at when I saw that one. Oddly it was out probably 9:30 in the morning.

In the hill country, I have seen many of them over the years, some places I have been, seem to have quite a few of them. Even in areas where there is a good population of them, you may never see one. Unless you went out side at the right time of night, in the right area and knew generally where to look for them, you probably were not going to see them. Turns out I had a pair of ringtails living in the top of my house for years, before I ever saw them. I could hear them jumping on the roof when they came back home every morning about 5:00 AM. Then you could hear them running around on the tin roof, when they were leaving every night to go out looking for food. Turns out the top of the barn, was the meeting place for the local ringtail population. If you shined a spot light up in the top of the barn about midnight, you likely would see three to five of them up there. They seem to like old abandoned buildings, houses, shacks, barns.

As for what they eat, I think fruits and nuts. I know around where we lived there were quite a few osage oranges, they loved those things. There is a group of those trees that produce a lot of fruit, those trees in that group of trees, don't grow straight up, they are the most twisted strange looking trees. The trees in that spot grow more horizontal that vertical. That seems to be the spot where the coons and the ringtails like to go and hang out and eat a often. There will usually be a bunch of partially eaten osage oranges and then coon and ringtail poop, on the trees and ground, in that area. I think they also eat acorns. Most every area I have ever seen ringtails there are live oak trees, so I assume they eat a lot of acorns. I suspect they also eat prickly pear pears.

The places where I have seen the majority of the ring tails I have seen in my life, were in old abandoned houses, and barns. A woman we used to know, had 250 acres that is on the back fence line of The Natural Bridge Caverns wild life park. There used to be an old abandoned house on her property, we went looking around and in that house. There was a ringtail, that was living in the old cast iron stove. It used the stove pipe to get in and out of it's iron home. I have only found one ringtail that was not in an old abandoned building, that was the one, I saw about 9:30 on morning up in the brush, in south Texas. At the time, I had no idea what I was looking at, I thought it was something that escaped from a zoo, but had no idea how it wound up outside of Encinal. There are probably a lot more of them in south Texas than most people realize, they are usually not easy to see or find. I would assume that there are probably many areas in central, north and east Texas that have good populations of ringtails, but I really don't know. I have never seen them in those area, but I have been in those areas, very little in my life.

[bowguy75]

My grandpa used to always talk about seeing them out near San Angelo, but I have hunted Texas for 35 years without ever laying eyes on one.

They sure are a cool little animal.

[bullhead44]

We caught some on our trap lines back in early 80's around Crawford. I haven't seen one in years though.

[ultrastealth]

We have quite a few around our ranch, and I kind of like them. I have caught the occasional one in a trap, but, for the most part, I just see them on the game cams.

[Gary Roberson]

We still have a few around Menard and quite a few on the ranch in southern Medina County. We had one for a pet when I was a youngster and it was the best "wild" pet we ever had.
Adios,
Gary

[muzzlebrake]

When I was a kid we lived for a time in Menard on the San Saba river. If you went outside at night and shined a light the trees were full of big shining silver dollars. We also lived in Crane Tx before that and these things were everywhere around there. I have seen many on the LBJ grasslands while coon hunting up there. Haven't seen a single one in Sterling Co. over the last 15 years I been hunting out there.

[centex_aggie]

Saw one in Liberty Hill a few months ago in an old shed. He was sleeping up in the rafters.

[muzzlebrake]

Also known as a Miner's Cat.
People used to keep them as pets to help get rid of rats and mice.

[Texas452]

I was clearing timber with a dozer in the early 80’s about 10 miles from Hearne and saw one.
We lived in Langtry in the early 70’s and they were thick out there.

[muzzlebrake]

https://youtu.be/NleMQdbV7WU

[SabreKiller]

Yup, just leave your blind door open a smidge.

[okrattler]

That's really one of the only animals I can think of that I'd like to shoot so I can get it mounted. They're pretty I think but I've heard they stink. I saw a ringtail mount once and have wanted one ever since.

[doghouse]

That's really one of the only animals I can think of that I'd like to shoot so I can get it mounted. They're pretty I think but I've heard they stink. I saw a ringtail mount once and have wanted one ever since.

I killed many as a kid while coon hunting. They do have an odor but nothing close to a skunk. I just haven't seen one in years in Mills county.