Surprise in the live trap

[Miss Lydia]

Cute little fellow, but it said they eat birds so probably would go after a small chicken.

 

[Hopperkiller]

It is a beautiful animal. We caught a young one in biology class in college and caged and tried to tame it. It was half grown and hell on wheels. Caught and fed cotton rats to him. Got out over Easter and opened a lab rat cages and killed about forty rats eating their heads and caching the bodies in hidden areas of the room. Couldn't tame this one so it was released on the red river.

Watching this one for a few weeks I don't want one around my henhouse. Acted like a supercharged weasel. Living on the black land prairies there are a lot of critters here that would like a chicken dinner. Hope to keep ringtails, coons, coyotes and dogs out of mine. Daytime free ranging poses risks but this is one sneaky and probably crafty critter at dark.

Admire them but don't trust em around your flock!

 

[BrickWall Honey]

Probably only would take a chick not a full grown hen. "the Ringtail is arguably the most actively carnivorous species of procyonid" {courtesy of Wikipedia}

Think they also eat small sparrow type birds.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

What area of Texas are you in? I have heard a few people say that those are moving into OK, but I've never in my life seen one...

Quote:
Just how far South from Oklahoma is the Red River?

OK, OK, I know that ring tailed cats are native to part of Oklahoma and other places in the American South West, but just barely.

Non-native wildlife has committed more ecological destruction on Earth than all the humans in recorded history. If you can't live without owning an exotic wildlife species, then by all means move to the reason of Earth where this species is native. Feel free then to buy or kidnap one out of the wild to torture, coheres, or force into tolerating your human presence. Yes I realize that chickens are a non-native species but if you read the predators and pest section of this forum it should be plain that nowhere in main land North America can the domestic chicken establish a viable wild breeding population. The same can not be said for the 15 or more sub-species of ringtails. Humans have helped push the opossum North, the raccoon West, and the coyote East.

As an example 100 years ago the Chinese chestnut was planted in (I think Centurial Park in New York City) These non-native trees introduced a foreign disease organism that with human intervention hitched a ride across two oceans. These disease organism found a new host on the American chestnut tree, one of the most useful and plentiful trees on Earth.

1/4 of the total vegetation mass East of the Mississippi river died as a result of chestnut blight. I have only seen one living American chestnut tree and it sprouted from the roots of a dead snag. It died again 40 years ago soon after setting its first nut crop, never to regrow. The old timers told me that the Allegany Mountains once looked kike they were covered in snow during May or June because there were so many chestnut trees in full bloom. Almost all of the rough land East of the prairie unfit for agricultural was once covered in American chestnut trees.

 

[Chickens R Us]

Wild animals belong in the wild. I watched a show on Animal Planet, I think it was called My Deadly Obsession. People had wild and exotic pets and they ended up killing them. I don't think a Ringtail could kill you but it might do some serious damage.

 

[sandovaljose214]

beatiful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!