Arizona’s state mammal, ringtails, can be tricky to see. Smaller cousins to raccoons, they live in rocky habitats across the southwest. With large rounded eyes and ears, they’re exceptionally well adapted for their elusive, nocturnal lifestyle.
Typically weighing just two pounds, these agile creatures possess long black and white ringed tails for balance and can scale vertical rock faces with ease. They’re common in the Grand Canyon National Park from the rims down to the river, where ringtails usually avoid people.
But they can be drawn to the Park’s historic buildings, like Bright Angel Lodge and Phantom Ranch, where they hide in cavities and attics during the daytime. They can be great natural pest control agents, eating cockroaches and rodents, especially deer mice, a primary carrier of hantavirus.
But some ringtails have become so habituated to people, that they’ve been spotted sneaking into the dining room at the El Tovar, snatching packets of sugar and coffee creamers, and hunting for tasty morsels in the trash. And when they acquire a taste for human foods, they can become trouble-makers!
In a recent study, park wildlife biologists tried trapping problem animals, then releasing them into suitable natural habitats, 15 miles away from park lodges. But over half of these ringtail raiders came back.
Apparently, just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, for ringtails... there’s no place like home!
This Earth Note was written by Diane Hope and produced by KNAU and the Sustainable Communities Program at Northern Arizona University.
