Arizona’s state mammal needed more rescues this year

Arizona’s state mammal is the ring-tailed cat, often erroneously called the ring-tailed cat. This is a small cat-like creature that actually belongs to the raccoon family. It looks like a hybrid of a cat and a raccoon with a fluffy ring-shaped tail.

But these little creatures have a tougher time today as we move further into the desert and come into ever closer contact with what is now called urban wildlife.

The Southwest Wildlife Center says there has been a significant increase in ringtail rescues this year as they make their way into toilets and pipes in search of water and food.

Kim Carr, animal care manager for the Southwest Wildlife Center, joined the show to discuss.

Full conversation

KIM CARR: If you ask any Arizona native, sometimes they don’t even know what a ringtail is. They’ve never heard of the ringtail, but they are actually Arizona’s state mammal and are incredibly interesting little critters. Lots and lots of neat adaptations and characterizations of them. But you won’t see them very often because they are very secretive and mostly nocturnal.

LAUREN GILGER: Right, right. They are elusive, yes. And they seem to have a tendency to live in such strange places.

CARR: Yeah. They find small niches, rock crevices, mine shafts and people’s attics. You know, they can get into these tiny places. So you don’t really see them very often, they’re just very well hidden. They went into a lot of different, you know, Arizona folklore and whatnot.

GILGER: Okay. So let’s talk about what’s going on with ringtails now because it’s not that big of a development. Your organization reports that this year there has been a significant increase in the number of ringtails in need of rescue. And this is a common occurrence for everyone. But these are the animals that, because of some of the qualities you’ve described here, are found in some difficult situations, does that sound right?

CARR: Yes. And you know, given the increase in our numbers, it doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a lot for us because we only get to see a ringtail once every two years. So, this is not a normal animal that we take in and care for.

But for some reason this year, in the last six months, we’ve gotten five of them, which, again, in terms of numbers, it’s not that big of a number. But considering we only see once every couple of years, that’s a lot of ringtails for us. And they come from different scenarios, get into trouble in different ways and need our help.

GILGER: Right. So you’ve rescued ringtails in unusual places, like a school bathroom, a pickup truck, a medical facility, a tortilla factory. Tell us a little about the situations they found themselves in.

CARR: There’s something of a tourist area near the Superstition Mountains and it’s called Tortilla Flat. So it’s kind of a historical area. There’s a salon/restaurant where people can, you know, it’s open, people can come there, there’s food there. So it’s kind of a small tourist spot.

And some of the restaurant workers called our emergency line. And they found a ring tail that had gotten into the oil transfer tube, but that’s where the fryer oil is stored, and there was no oil inside the tube. But of course there was a lot of residue because oil, you know, sticks to everything, and some rainwater got in there. So it was kind of mixed.

And somehow the ringtail got in there and was covered in this oily residue. It was wet, completely wet. And the workers were able to put him in a box because he wasn’t feeling very well, and they didn’t have to try too hard, and they called our emergency line, and then we sent one of our volunteers there to bring it in. little guy.

GILGER: Man, oh man. So that they can find themselves because they like to go into these little spaces, some difficult places. Were the ones you found and rescued this year in poor condition?

CARR: A couple of them were fine. They found themselves in a place that maybe they couldn’t get out of, and maybe they could, but, you know, you can’t have a ringtail hanging out in a closet at school for various reasons.

You don’t want a wild animal running amok in the school, and maybe that animal could get out on its own, but of course, you know, and wanted to be careful, and, and they ended up, you know, pulling a ringtail out of the school, and that was good, but some of them come in and are perfectly healthy, maybe they just need to find another place to live.

But we had a few, you know, really skinny ones, and of course the one from Tortilla Flat didn’t do very well. He swallowed some of the oil that got into his lungs. Therefore, it took a lot of effort to make this animal healthy.

But, fortunately, some of them do come to us, and this happens very quickly. They can be released pretty quickly and, you know, they’re obviously stories that we love and we just need to find a new home for them. Others may require more intensive medical care and time for rehabilitation.

GILGER: Right. And if you can just release them back into the wild, maybe into a slightly less urban environment?

CARR: Absolutely. And, you know, we try to find them a really good place, especially if we rescue them where they’re kind of stranded. We want to take them away from this place. You know, this is their habitat and probably their home range, but we don’t want them to get into trouble again. And as for urban wildlife, you know, people always think that wild animals live in the desert, very far away, far from civilization and people, and in fact now they just live among us, and that’s how it will be. be from now on.

GILGER: Right. So let’s talk about it, because this trend seems to be growing and we’re seeing more and more stories like this about animals getting into difficult situations with humans or getting stuck, like these ringtails can get. You know, it’s about us building more and more and getting more and more into their habitat?

CARR: Of course, there are many different factors, this is one of them. We just, you know, build and build, taking over more and more habitats, and a lot of these animals are learning to coexist with people, which is great because we certainly don’t want to drive anything to extinction or, you know , being in danger of extinction.

So they live among us, in our neighborhoods, and they kind of learn to adapt, and part of that may be because, you know, if you have a hot year or a year like we had, you know, a year of severe drought, and therefore, they are forced to come to these urban areas in search of food and water.

So, there are so many different factors that can explain why you see so many animals in your surroundings. But again, you know, that’s where they can find almost all the resources they need. Unfortunately, buying wildlife in our areas, mostly in our cities, is a one stop shop.

GILGER: Is this related to the extreme heat we experienced here this summer? More than usual?

CARR: It seems we did have a lot of animals that were severely heat stressed and dehydrated. And every summer we get these animals, especially some of the younger animals, perhaps animals that have been orphaned or somehow separated from their mothers and are in very poor condition.

But because this summer we had such an extreme summer, and we, as everyone knows, survived it. The heat was unbearable and there was no rain. So you think about these wild animals, they have all these adaptations to survive without water for a while, at some point they’re going to need some water. And we received a lot of animals that, as you know, were in dire need due to lack of moisture and lack of ability to find water. So it’s been a pretty tough summer for wildlife.

GILGER: Tell me what other examples of this are there. Would people be surprised what species of animals suffer from heat in this way? Do you know, are local animals also accustomed to the desert?

CARR: Even native animals, there are some animals that can possibly live their entire lives just getting moisture from food, there are certain rodents that don’t even need to drink a drop of water. They can get all the moisture they can from the seeds and food they eat.

But you know, mammals, wild mammals need water, they get a lot of water from their food, but you know, they can’t go without water forever. So they have to search longer and harder for water sources, especially when there’s just no rain, it might just be a puddle from a rainstorm and that might be all they need for a while. But when we don’t get any rain at all throughout the summer, it’s really bad for wildlife.