Trail Camera Captures One of North America’s Most Elusive Mammals: The Ringtail

Trail camera footage has captured one of the most elusive mammals in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. — the ringtail.

Remote cameras from Epstein Family Forest in Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains, which is being conserved by Pacific Forest Trust, recorded a rare glimpse of the ringtail.

Despite being the cousin of the common raccoon, the ringtail is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most elusive mammals; nocturnal, rarely studied, smaller than a house cat, and protected under federal law even before the Endangered Species Act existed.

The new video footage captured on the 405-acre Epstein Family Forest, which is located near Ashland, Oregon, shows the ringtail stopping to look at the trail camera, standing on its hind legs, surveying its surroundings, before suddenly darting off into the dark.

The ringtail, a North American mammal, is seen in the footage | Image credit: Elster Photography

For the Pacific Forest Trust, the trail camera sighting is a striking sign that its active restoration forest stewardship of the Epstein Family Forest is working. Landowners Bill and Sarah Epstein have spent decades restoring a heavily damaged forest and subdivision of country homes into a model for conservation and fire-resilient, ecologically managed forest.

The Epsteins have been working with Pacific Forest Trust to complete a working forest conservation easement, a permanent legal agreement that keeps forests in production while ensuring management practices support biodiversity and ecosystem health. The property sits within the Oregon Conservation Strategy’s Siskiyou Crest Conservation Opportunity Area, one of the most botanically diverse regions in the world, and is home to 16 rare or sensitive animal species. With the region’s habitats flowing across the boundaries of public and private lands, the stewardship has amplified these connections, with great benefits to wildlife.

The Mammal Once Known as the ‘Miner’s Cat’

The ringtail is a small, nocturnal carnivore which has been described as a cross between a fox, cat, and raccoon. Not much larger than a squirrel, these animals are grayish brown with a distinctive black and white ringed tail.

Ringtails have sometimes been referred to as “Miner’s Cats,” because settlers and miners in the 19th century used to keep these animals in their homes as a form of rodent control.

Ringtails are very good climbers, and they have the ability to move quickly along ledges and bluffs by jumping back and forth between walls. They also have the ability to climb crevices by putting their feet on one wall and their back on the other. They can descend very quickly by rotating their hind feet 180 degrees, which allows their pads and claws to stay in contact with the surface.

Despite being native to North America, the ringtail is extremely elusive, shy, and chronically understudied. Ringtails prefer a solitary existence and are active from dusk to dawn, with most activity taking place during the darkest hours while foraging for food.