Cats are Super Jealous of This Secretive Utah Animal’s Skill

There’s an animal in Utah that you probably have never seen even if you grew up in the state. If you do run into one, it will probably be in the middle of the night, and you might think you saw a cat or possibly a raccoon. 

One of the Cutest Animals Most People Never See 

The ringtail cat is native to Utah and was once kept as a pet by miners. This little animal lives in the wild of the southwest among the junipers making a home in the rocks and cliffs. It kind of looks like a cat from the front but is not related. 

The tail gives it its name. It is long and bushy with rings on it that look a bit like a raccoon, and this is the family they belong to. It is nocturnal meaning it only comes out at night, and this is why most people never see them. 

They eat insects and small rodents, and this is why the early miners liked having them around. They munched many of the irritating bugs and kept other rodents at bay. At the same time, the ringtails were drawn to scavenge the easy food left out by humans. 

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Cats Could Benefit from a Ringtail’s Tree Climbing Skills 

There is a long history of firemen getting called to get a cat out of a tree. That’s because cats have no problem going up the trunk but have a hard time coming back down. This is not a problem for a ringtail. 

These little animals can turn their back feet all the way around and so their feet are facing down the trunk. They then can easily walk backward, well kind of frontward, down the tree. It is a pretty unique trick. 

Read More: Here’s One Simple Way to Make Your Animal Photographs Pop

It is also the state mammal of Arizona. Big stuff for an animal that almost no one has seen in the wild.