Ring-tailed Look-alikes

There are several ring-tailed mammals besides our North American raccoon.  Do you know what they are?  Several are also in the raccoon family - like the ring-tailed cat.  Even thought it's called a cat, it isn't one.

Source:  Wikipedia

It's found in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.  Like the raccoon it eats fruit, insects, rodents and birds.  Unlike raccoons which prefer a forest habitat, the ringtail lives in rocky desert areas.  It's sometimes called a miner's cat (because they were kept by miner's to help control the mice) or cacothistle.  But cacothistle more often refers to this guy who looks very similar, but is found in southern Mexico and Central America.

Source:  Wikipedia

However, the cacothistle's preferred habitat is wet, tropical woodlands or mountain forests instead of deserts.  It also has a longer tail and is slightly different in color.  Its food preferences are similar and includes frogs, lizards and eggs.

Another member of the raccoon family is the coati.  The ring-tailed coati or South American coati is, obviously, found in South America, but unlike the cacothistle and ring-tailed cat which are nocturnal, the coati is diurnal.  It uses its long nose to sniff out small mammals and its climbing ability to find fruit high in the trees.  It lives both in the trees and on the ground.

Source:  Wikipedia

While other members of the raccoon family are fairly solitary, coati females live in bands of 15 to 30 individuals.

Two other ring-tailed critters live in Madagascar and are not related to raccoons.  The ring-tailed mongoose is also active during the day and uses its tree-climbing ability in its forest habitat to find invertebrates and reptiles.

Source:  Wikipedia

The red color of this guy makes it a little more distinctive.  It's also smaller in size than the raccoon family relatives.

The other Madagascar dweller is the ring-tailed lemur from the primate family.

Source:  Wikimedia

Like the coati, it also lives in groups.  It primarily eats leaves and fruit, and the tamarind tree is its favorite source.

So why the ringed tail?  Perhaps like the stripes on a zebra it can confuse predators.  It can also be used for communication, although that would be more important for the group living species and maybe not so much for the solitary ones.  I'm not sure what the advantage of a ringed tail is, but it seems to work for this group.