San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Shy ringtails populate the backcountry, but you’ll rarely see them
Curt Waite and Dave Fleming will be quick to tell you that things going bump in the night at their isolated mountaintop outpost are likely strange visitors that few people have ever seen.
And if they try to describe these visitors, you might think they’ve been alone in the wilderness a little too long.
Portraying their guests as a combination of fox, cat and raccoon might sound like their midnight marauders are some kind of mythical Dr. Seuss creature.
While rarely seen, these gentle animals with the face of a fox, large eyes and ears, cat-like body and huge black-and-white ringed tail, are very real.
Waite and Fleming have proof.
These two forest fire lookouts have a ringside seat to a family of nocturnal creatures known correctly as ringtails.
I mention that, because these relatives of raccoons are often incorrectly called ringtail cats a name that likely came from the Gold Rush era when the ringtail was often kept as a pet and became known as a miner’s cat.
The problem is not recognizing a ringtail, it’s more a matter of ever seeing one.
Waite and Fleming work for the U.S. Forest Service at the Los Pinos Fire Lookout located on an East County mountain that commands a view of thousands of acres of forest wildlands, not to mention offering spectacular encounters with wildlife.
Waite, a Vista resident, has worked at the lookout every Monday through Thursday since 2016 and stays overnight three times a week. Fleming lives in Poway and has worked Friday through Sunday for three years, spending two nights in the tower each week.
They first became aware of the ringtail several years ago when one curious visitor would leave an untidy calling card after visiting a bowl of water kept in a box housing weather instruments on the tower catwalk railing.
“We discussed putting water out on the catwalk, and when we did the ringtail eventually came up to drink,” Waite said. “He soon became used to us, and I was even able to get a few pictures. We call him Ringo.”
Waite describes the furry ringtail as “not skittish and very laid back.”
“I could open the door and he would be less than 6 feet way and he would just look at me and slowly walk away, Waite said. “They are really fun and cute to watch.”
The ringtail is an expert climber and doesn’t use the stairs to climb the tower. They can rotate their hind feet 180 degrees, giving them the ability to climb or descend nearly vertical structures. He used this skill to scamper up the metal framework of the lookout tower.
Since there is no natural water supply on top of the mountain, Fleming came up with the idea of placing a plastic container in the rocks below the tower and it didn’t take long for the local animal population to learn that there was a reliable water source near the lookout. Now there is a regular parade of creatures coming to drink, including ringtails.
Both lookouts keep the tub filled with water while on duty during fire season from late April to November.
“It soon became a popular central point attracting local animals, including racoons, foxes, skunks and ringtail at night, and turkey vultures and ravens during the day,” Fleming said.
Recently the tub was modified to provide a shallow platform that also allows smaller animals such as mice, wood rats and chipmunks to drink without the danger of falling in.
Ringtails are typically solitary creatures, but the water has attracted as many as four at once. Fleming said a mated pair and their two youngsters were caught on camera coming to drink.
While water is put out for wildlife, Waite said they do not put out food.
“We don’t want the animals to become dependent on us,” he said.
Ringtails are omnivorous, feeding on just about anything they encounter, but preferring fruit, insects, lizards and snakes and the occasional small mouse or squirrel. They will also feed on small birds and their eggs.
In addition to the game camera capturing night activity, Fleming keeps a digital camera equipped with a telephoto lens handy to record daylight visits with eagles, and other passing birds, but it’s the ringtail that has been the most fun to record.
“We have hundreds of images of ringtails. They come almost every night,” Fleming said.
Despite their secretive ways, biologists say ringtail numbers are strong and have no concern about local populations.