Folks,

I came home tonight and in my driveway was a very odd looking dead
animal. I do not recognize it. It was lying dead next to a very large
bird or squirrel's nest that had come down from one of the oaks above.

It is about the size of a large male squirrel, but it has a black and
white ringed tail and a fox like face with sharp teeth. Its body is more
tan and brown colored fur with that black and white ringed tail. Weird!

It looked like it had both fallen out of the tree with the nest, but had
also been chewed on by something else.

Question: What animal is it?

TIA -- Gae

ferret?

"Gae Xavier" wrote in message
...
Folks,

I came home tonight and in my driveway was a very odd looking dead
animal. I do not recognize it. It was lying dead next to a very large
bird or squirrel's nest that had come down from one of the oaks above.

It is about the size of a large male squirrel, but it has a black and
white ringed tail and a fox like face with sharp teeth. Its body is more
tan and brown colored fur with that black and white ringed tail. Weird!

It looked like it had both fallen out of the tree with the nest, but had
also been chewed on by something else.

Question: What animal is it?

TIA -- Gae

Question: What animal is it?

There is a critter called a ring tailed cat that lives around here, no relation
to the domestic cat. Unfortunately, I've never seen one, so I'm working on
heresay. But this sounds like what you have.
Gary Brady
Austin, TX

Gae,
We have a variety of ring-tailed cat here that sounds like what you're
describing - check out http://www.light-science.com/articles1015.html

http://www.bestfriends.org/sanctuary...lcat041302.htm

http://www.bczooimages.com/laz/anima...ingtailcat.htm

--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts
http://www.tudortarts.com/


"Gae Xavier" wrote in message
...
Folks,

I came home tonight and in my driveway was a very odd looking dead
animal. I do not recognize it. It was lying dead next to a very large
bird or squirrel's nest that had come down from one of the oaks above.

It is about the size of a large male squirrel, but it has a black and
white ringed tail and a fox like face with sharp teeth. Its body is more
tan and brown colored fur with that black and white ringed tail. Weird!

It looked like it had both fallen out of the tree with the nest, but had
also been chewed on by something else.

Question: What animal is it?

TIA -- Gae

Yep, that is what it looks like. Oh... I am so sorry for what happened to it.
I wonder if that big tree-top nest was its nest and what sort of predator
could have gotten to it way up there.

http://www.bestfriends.org/sanctuary...lcat041302.htm

The ring tail cat and the nest seem to have come down and landed together,
but what chewed the cat up and killed it from up there? A bobcat? Geez...
Animal Planet in my yard!

I am starting to understand why neighbors are finding their house cats killed
and mutilated in their yards...but by what bigger animal?

Thanks for the replies. I had no idea that we had such a critter here since
the info says it is the state animal for Arizona -- a few miles away from its
home base I would say. :/

Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts wrote:

Gae,
We have a variety of ring-tailed cat here that sounds like what you're
describing - check out http://www.light-science.com/articles1015.html

http://www.bestfriends.org/sanctuary...lcat041302.htm

http://www.bczooimages.com/laz/anima...ingtailcat.htm

--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts
http://www.tudortarts.com/

"Gae Xavier" wrote in message
...
Folks,

I came home tonight and in my driveway was a very odd looking dead
animal. I do not recognize it. It was lying dead next to a very large
bird or squirrel's nest that had come down from one of the oaks above.

It is about the size of a large male squirrel, but it has a black and
white ringed tail and a fox like face with sharp teeth. Its body is more
tan and brown colored fur with that black and white ringed tail. Weird!

It looked like it had both fallen out of the tree with the nest, but had
also been chewed on by something else.

Question: What animal is it?

TIA -- Gae

On Wed, 25 Dec 2002 08:15:58 -0600, Gae Xavier wrote:

I am starting to understand why neighbors are finding their house cats killed
and mutilated in their yards...but by what bigger animal?

I heard the other day that coyotes were being blamed for a number of
cat killings / mutilations in NW Austin.

deg

Yes, there are coyotes too, but they do not climb high into trees where this
ring-tailed cat was before it fell dead. I think it must be a bobcat or maybe a
fox which I saw coming down from a tree about a mile from my house. A guy about a
mile away also saw a bobcat in his backyard one afternoon.

My dog got hit by a porcupine one night in our backyard. Fortunately, the quills
missed his eyes, but got his muzzle and nose pretty bad. Ouch!! I tried using
pliers and he was game, but his wincing finally was too much for me, so I took
him to the emergency vet place and it cost $200. to get them yanked out with
anesthesia. Sigh... it isn't easy living in the wilds of Texas.

Dewitt wrote:

On Wed, 25 Dec 2002 08:15:58 -0600, Gae Xavier wrote:

I am starting to understand why neighbors are finding their house cats killed
and mutilated in their yards...but by what bigger animal?

I heard the other day that coyotes were being blamed for a number of
cat killings / mutilations in NW Austin.

deg

It could have been a hawk. They do that sort of thing. They prey on
animals that size and smaller, and the northern hawks have already migrated
south.

--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts
http://www.tudortarts.com/

"Gae Xavier" wrote in message
...
Yep, that is what it looks like. Oh... I am so sorry for what happened to
it.
I wonder if that big tree-top nest was its nest and what sort of predator
could have gotten to it way up there.

http://www.bestfriends.org/sanctuary...lcat041302.htm

The ring tail cat and the nest seem to have come down and landed together,
but what chewed the cat up and killed it from up there? A bobcat? Geez...
Animal Planet in my yard!

I am starting to understand why neighbors are finding their house cats
killed
and mutilated in their yards...but by what bigger animal?

Thanks for the replies. I had no idea that we had such a critter here
since
the info says it is the state animal for Arizona -- a few miles away from
its
home base I would say. :/

You may be correct about that hawk, Elizabeth.

After a postmortem forensic exam, I found the dead ring-tailed cat that
landed on the ground with the squirrel's nest had just bit of fur pulled out or
disintegrated and his/her head was messed up a bit. I found a maggot on one
piece of fur. So it probably was killed in the tree by an attack to the head
and then lay there awhile before a gust of wind blew it down from the tree. I
haven't watched the forensic tv show lately, so I have forgotten how many
days for the maggots to hatch from the flies after death.

I am still amazed and a little frightened about the wildlife that lives around
us, since my dog does go out in the backyard. If I wanted to keep a dog locked
up here, I would not have left my NYC apartment. :/

But having the garden is good! I used to have banks of fluorescent lamps on
timers in my studio on West 85th Street to keep the orchids and gesneriads
blooming.

And now I have Bok Choy and tomatoes and lots of cooking leaves (herbs) and
citrus trees all over the back yard.

I used to "taste test" kumquats in Balducci's but now, I have a taste all
winter long from my little kumquat tree and they don't cost $6.95 per pound.

Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts wrote:

It could have been a hawk. They do that sort of thing. They prey on
animals that size and smaller, and the northern hawks have already migrated
south.

--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts
http://www.tudortarts.com/

"Gae Xavier" wrote in message
...
Yep, that is what it looks like. Oh... I am so sorry for what happened to
it.
I wonder if that big tree-top nest was its nest and what sort of predator
could have gotten to it way up there.

http://www.bestfriends.org/sanctuary...lcat041302.htm

The ring tail cat and the nest seem to have come down and landed together,
but what chewed the cat up and killed it from up there? A bobcat? Geez...
Animal Planet in my yard!

I am starting to understand why neighbors are finding their house cats
killed
and mutilated in their yards...but by what bigger animal?

Thanks for the replies. I had no idea that we had such a critter here
since
the info says it is the state animal for Arizona -- a few miles away from
its
home base I would say. :/