The ringtail is one of Colorado’s least-seen native carnivores. Open occurrence databases hold just 58 Colorado records for it, 41 of them iNaturalist photos. That thin tally says less about how many ringtails live here than about how rarely anyone lays eyes on one.
A nocturnal cat that is not a cat
Despite the old miner’s-cat nickname, the ringtail is no cat at all but a small relative of the raccoon, buff-gray and fox-faced with enormous dark eyes and a spectacular black-and-white banded tail longer than its body. It hunts by night and spends the day denned in rock crevices, so the record map is really a map of where a person happened to catch one in a headlamp beam, a spotlight, or a camera-trap frame. Many Colorado records come from foothill canyons along the Front Range, where Boulder and Jefferson counties lead, and from the rocky western-slope canyons of Mesa and Fremont counties.
Where the rock meets the record
Ringtails are creatures of broken rock: cliff bands, boulder slopes, canyon walls, and old mine shafts, usually near water and often lower and warmer than the surrounding country. Colorado sits near the northern edge of the species’ range, which is part of why the state’s numbers stay low. They do not hibernate, but cold snaps and deep snow drive them to shelter and slow their movements, so sightings ebb through the hardest part of winter and rise again as nights warm.
Status in Colorado
Colorado ranks the ringtail S4, apparently secure, and it is native here. To have any real chance of one, work rocky canyon country after dark, near water, and watch for eyeshine on the cliffs.
Full species profile
