Ringtail
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40 free Ringtail trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The ringtail is one of North America's least-seen mammals: a slender, big-eared climber with a banded tail as showy as any lemur's. People call it a cat, but the name is a mistake, and most of what makes the animal remarkable is just as easy to get wrong. These questions cover the fun facts about the ringtail cat in full: how it moves on sheer rock, what it eats, how it defends itself, where it lives, how it raises its young, and where it sits on the mammal family tree. Every answer comes with a short explanation. The quiz suits wildlife fans, hikers and campers in canyon country, teachers planning a lesson on desert animals, and anyone who has just met a ringtail on a trail camera and wants to know more.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Despite the nickname ring-tailed cat, the ringtail is a close relative of which familiar North American mammal?
Raccoon
Raccoon is right: both belong to the family Procyonidae, and genetic studies suggest their lineages split about 10 million years ago.
Q 02The ringtail has been the official state mammal of which southwestern US state since August 1986?
Arizona
Arizona adopted the ringtail in the same law that named an official state reptile, fish and amphibian: a rattlesnake, a trout and a tree frog.
Q 03The ringtail's nickname miner's cat comes from the job it did in prospectors' cabins, which was what?
Catching mice
Catching mice earned tame ringtails a welcome in the camps and homes of early settlers, who kept them as companions as well as mousers.
Q 04A ringtail's hind feet can rotate 180 degrees, which lets the animal do what on cliffs and tree trunks?
Descend headfirst
Descend headfirst: with the hind feet turned around, the pads and claws keep their grip, so a ringtail runs straight down a trunk that a house cat would have to back down.
Q 05When are ringtails active, which is why visitors to the Grand Canyon rarely see these common animals?
At night
At night is when ringtails hunt, and Grand Canyon rangers say they also use the dark to loot campers' packs, open trash cans and dumpsters.
Q 06On a ledge too narrow to turn around on, a ringtail can reverse direction by performing which gymnastic move?
A cartwheel
A cartwheel lets a ringtail swap ends on a ledge or tree limb, one of several climbing tricks that include bouncing between the walls of a rock crack.
Q 07The ringtail's scientific name, Bassariscus astutus, translates as a cunning little version of which animal?
Fox
Fox is the root: Bassariscus joins a Greek word for the animal to a Latin ending meaning little, and astutus adds cunning.
Q 08A ringtail can survive for long periods in the desert without doing which of these?
Drinking water
Drinking water is optional for a ringtail: when its diet is rich in prey, fruit and insects, the moisture in that food can be all it needs.
Q 09Which bird of prey is named alongside coyotes and bobcats as a known predator of the ringtail?
Great horned owl
Great horned owl tops the predator lists from the Grand Canyon to the Edwards Plateau; the same bird is one of the few regular hunters of skunks.
Q 10A captured ringtail defends itself by discharging what from glands near the base of its tail?
A pungent musk
A pungent musk comes with sound effects: a seized ringtail also lets out a high-pitched, penetrating scream.
Q 11When threatened, a ringtail bristles its tail and arches it over its back to create which effect?
Look larger
Look larger is the bluff: every hair on the banded tail stands on end as it curls forward, puffing up an animal that weighs only about two pounds.
Q 12What does a ringtail's long, bushy tail help the animal do as it crosses steep slopes and boulders?
Keep its balance
Keep its balance: Grand Canyon rangers call ringtails extremely agile, and the animals are found from the canyon rim all the way down to the river.
Q 13How do adult ringtails usually live and den outside the brief breeding season?
Alone
Q 21Which tropical forest animal of Central America is the ringtail's only living relative in the genus Bassariscus?
Cacomistle
Cacomistle and ringtail look alike, but the tropical cousin has ears that end in a distinct point and tail markings that fade towards the tip.
Q 22A Mexican name for the ringtail comes from a word for half puma in which Indigenous language?
Nahuatl
Nahuatl speakers called the animal tlahcomiztli; the same language gave English the words coyote, chocolate and tomato.
Q 23Because modern ringtails barely differ from forms millions of years old, they are sometimes given which label?
Living fossils
Living fossils is the label: remains assigned to the same species date back to the early Pliocene and turn up as far north as Washington state.
Alone is the rule: a ringtail normally dens by itself, and the home ranges of neighbouring males do not overlap.
Q 14In which season do ringtails usually mate, before the females give birth in May or June?
Spring
Spring mating leads to a pregnancy of under two months, and a mother usually raises a litter of two to four young.
Q 15Ringtail kits are born with their eyes closed and keep them shut for roughly how long?
About a month
About a month passes before the eyes open: kits are born toothless and fuzzy, and they are fully furred by the time they can see.
Q 16The ringtail lives across which North American desert, famous as the home of the giant saguaro cactus?
Sonoran
Sonoran ringtails are only part of the story: the species also lives in the Chihuahuan and Great Basin deserts, wherever rocky ground offers shelter.
Q 17Which plant, best known as a Christmas decoration, do wild ringtails eat along with acorns and juniper berries?
Mistletoe
Mistletoe joins persimmons and wild figs on the ringtail's plant menu, although the animal shows a preference for meat when it can get it.
Q 18Ringtails climb tight rock cracks with feet on one wall and back on the other, a move climbers call what?
Stemming
Stemming gets a ringtail up a narrow crack, either with its back braced or with the right feet on one wall and the left feet on the other.
Q 19Stray ringtail records from Ohio and Alabama are blamed on the animal's habit of climbing aboard what?
Railroad cars
Railroad cars carried stowaway ringtails hundreds of miles outside a natural range centred on the arid Southwest.
Q 20Which Asian tree-climber was once classified in the ringtail's family but now has a family of its own?
Red panda
Red panda classification changed with molecular studies, which moved the species out of Procyonidae and into its own family, Ailuridae.
Q 24In which US state is the ringtail a Fully Protected species that may not be hunted or trapped?
California
California gives the ringtail the same Fully Protected status as the northern elephant seal, so none may be taken without state authorization.
Q 25The ringtail reaches the northern edge of its present range in the southwestern corner of which US state?
Oregon
Oregon ringtails live in tanoak woodland and Douglas-fir forest rather than desert, and the state lists the species as Sensitive.
Q 26In which US state are ringtails common in the rocky country of the Edwards Plateau and the Trans-Pecos?
Texas
Texas has ringtails almost statewide, missing only from the Panhandle and plains, and camera traps show they are more common than sightings suggest.
Q 27Ringtails in which Latin American capital were studied for the way they use droppings to mark territory?
Mexico City
Mexico City ringtails kept returning to the same latrine spots, the non-random pattern other mammals use to post territorial signals.
Q 28Although fruit is a big part of the diet, ringtails belong to which order of mammals?
Carnivora
Carnivora membership is about ancestry rather than diet: the order also holds dogs, bears and seals, and the ringtail's own family is generally omnivorous.
Q 29Which category does the IUCN Red List give the ringtail, a species found widely across the American Southwest?
Least Concern
Least Concern is the lowest-risk category, though ringtails still die in traps set for other furbearing animals.
Q 30Long viewed as small cousins of the bears, ringtails and their kin are now thought closer to which mammals?
Weasels
Weasels and the other mustelids are the nearer branch, yet German still calls the ringtail's relatives Kleinbären, or small bears.