Crossing the gate: The ringtails show how it's done

[@stevenfrost6441]

Ringtails, another great childhood memory for me! Man how I miss Central Texas and all of it's cool critters! I love how Mom in the last clip looked back and admired her little one's mastery over the fence tips!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We got such a kick out of watching these guys. For a while, they did it every night. It would have taken about 3 seconds to run across the driveway, but clearly there was a ringtail protocol that decreed laboriously tip-toeing across the top of the gate. Mama ringtail was very clear that there was a right way and a wrong way to get across, and tip-toeing was the right way.

[@Aburner1109]

I love seeing animals just going about their business without any humans around. Thanks for recording this footage, it's super fun to see ^^

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We smile every time we watch this video. Ringtails are fun to watch no matter what, but these little ones tip-toeing across the top of the gate are wonderful. They could perfectly easily run across the driveway in a 10th of the time, but I guess this way is more fun.

[@n.d.7931]

What marvelous creatures. And great footage too.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you so much.

[@ttenkrut]

Great upload

[@mychannelafc]

That big swishy tale has me mesmerized. I bet it's fluffy and soft

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

They look like soft toys, don't they? Hard to believe they exist as real live animals.

[@58russ]

Wow you must have lots of cameras out!! Very interesting, thanks!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We have about 60 or 65. It is a lot. Started with one about 10 years ago and the more we saw, the more we wanted to see more (if you know what I mean).

[@jenniferervin4639]

That 2nd little guy is a hoot!😂

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

I know, isn't he? And I love the squirrel's technique. The little hops across the top. Very clever.

[@alainrheault6579]

Fascinating, animals are 🤩🤩😍😍!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Ringtails are remarkable little creatures.

[@surfbirdie5759]

This was so interesting to watch, especially with the insightful observations! Thank you!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you so much, Surfbirdie!

[@danmekeel7758]

Very Good!

[@soniaalvarado5372]

That was terrific! Really enjoyed it! So much to learn about these neighboring animals!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We see something that surprises us almost every day. We had no idea the ringtails and squirrels were walking the top of the gate until one of our cameras caught a tiny bit of movement there. So we refocused and were rewarded with this great little show.

[@kathlynterry8196]

I could never teach my dog to weave. That’s a true built-in talent. You guys are the best wildlife instructors ever!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Dan has a close friend who is a dog agility trainer. We think she'll be very amused to see the baby ringtail doing perfect weave poles across the top of the gate.

[@belgiumtumbleweed5457]

Love your channel, thanks for sharing your footage.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you very much! The mama ringtail this year is leading 2 little ones across the top of the gate. They wobble and nearly fall. They must wonder why they can't just walk across the driveway on the ground. "Mama, this is really hard! Why do we have to do it?"

[@catsara9114]

I am stunned! 😮🤩 More amazing footage and narration!!! Animals never cease to fascinate.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Are they fun to watch? My favorite, actually, is the mama squirrel right at the end. That little bunny hop.

[@Santo-one1]

Thank you for sharing this. Watching from Southern California

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you! Aren't they fun? We saw 2 smallish ringtails crossing the gate like this a few days ago. We have no idea why they don't just cross on the ground.

[@loz3135]

Beautiful video

[@oldmango8606]

Always appreciate your videos and perspectives. Always appreciate nature's ways. thanks again

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you!

[@8brightside8]

Adorable! Hilarious! Great footage! I check-in on your live feed several times each night. Your videos are amazing. The moments you capture & your narration - I just really appreciate your work. And I love your place!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you so much for letting us know that you're enjoying the videos. We have fun making them.

[@youtubeuser206]

@@TexasBackyardWildlife catch thrm for pets

[@AdrianBoyko]

Gorgeous little animals. Thanks for posting this!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Aren't they cool, Adrian? We love watching the little one wobble across after her mama.

[@lisascenic]

Absolutely enchanting! Thank you so much for your videos.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Our pleasure, Lisa.

[@alanatolstad4824]

This was great! So glad you captured this for us!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We had a lot of fun watching these little guys.

[@violetskyq]

So fun! Great observations!

[@nAnimalsinthewild]

Wow you have the greatest videos

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you. People like you make this all worthwhile and fun.

[@josephgarrison7424]

LOVE THESE GUYS,,SO FUN TO WATCH,,,ALSO LOVE ALL CREATURES (WILDLIFE),,,ESPECIALLY LEMURS,AN COATIS,,FASCINATION OF HOW GREAT ANIMALS CAN BE:-):-):-):-):-)FUN CHANNEL

[@SimBianchi]

Thank you from Australia! I love your channel and being able to see all the wonderful wildlife you have over there.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Hey there - Great to hear from you, Misywor, and greetings to Australia from here in Texas. We wish we had some of your amazing native wildlife here. Mama Deer's head, in profile, is a little kangaroo-ish but that's as close as we get.

[@Professor-Patti]

@@TexasBackyardWildlife Ha! I thought the same thing about mama deer, too.

[@grantcritchfieldstexastrai7072]

Great video. I love ringtails and their antics/abilities. All of the various camera angles and different locations from the fence to the trees really highlighted their activities through the nighttime hours. Again great video and narration. Thanks for posting.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

I thought of you and your ringtails, Grant, when we published this one. They're fun to watch, aren't they?

[@LeesaDeAndrea]

Very agile! 😀

[@urbanbeachbum2148]

I had to pause to google ringtail. Another great video!

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you!

[@md-ln4fp]

I never new ringtails existed in the US. But between the owls and ringtail and all the other critters, love them all. Thanks for posting all the vids.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

It's our pleasure m d. If didn't have so many cameras out we might not know we had ringtails either. We see them all the time in our video clips, but in 10 years we've only seen them with our own eyes once or twice.

[@ShoreSlayer]

I love this so much

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you!

[@clarebeelman9691]

So cool! That mama squirrel bunny hop reminds me of the cartoon character Pepe Le Pew....

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Yes! Dan thought the same thing.

[@BirdSongsFromAroundTheWorld]

Priceless videos 😃 If agility training of ringtails made me smile, the bunny hops of squirrels made me laugh out loud. Thank you so much for sharing these with narration. Brightens up our day observing wildlife with you.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

The video, technically, was about the ringtails, but I loved the squirrels too. One bunny-hopped across the gate again yesterday afternoon. I rewound the video clip and watched it about 10 times. It's absolutely priceless.

[@BirdSongsFromAroundTheWorld]

Yes. It is very interesting to observe how the ringtails are groomed by their parent. 😃👍 squirrels antics are surely entertaining to watch.

[@hikerJohn]

If you look close (in slow motion at 1440p) with a large monitor it shows they are not walking on the tips but grabbing them from the side up near the tips. It's almost as if she has apposing thumbs. An amazing feat with amazing feet

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We hadn't noticed that. Thank you for being so observant!

[@MongoLionsLakais]

I took a look myself and it’s no so much grabbing the sides more so letting the peak of the tip slide between the webbing of their “thumb” and sort of cupping the tips. Almost like if you were to crawl across a round pole you’d let your thumb go to one side and use your fingers to grip the outer side for stability. 😂😂😂 never thought I’d be so interested in an animals grip choice at 4 am but here we are 😂😂😂😂

[@surfbirdie5759]

@@MongoLionsLakais😂

[@Foxes_Forever]

watch and marvel

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Yep. That's what we thought.

[@merveilleuxetmagique]

Awesome vid, thank you very much. You always manage to show us rare sightings of your backyard animals, things they do that we (at least I) don't get to see! I still must admit that, to me, the unparalled film any YT channel has offered was your mother raccoon story! Thanks again+++

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Hey there, M&M - We will publish an edited video of the mama raccoon and her 4 little ones. They were in the magic tree den for 5 weeks, and the camera was recording pretty much 24 hours per day, so we have a lot of video clips to go through (A LOT). Mama moved the family under the deck in mid-August and we see them every night. The babies all have different personalities and they're getting big now. They are huge fun to be around.

[@sandra.helianthus]

Thanks🌻

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Our pleasure, Sandra.

[@t.michaelbodine4341]

What a great video. I think you're right about the agility training thing. They're doing it on purpose. Very cute. Very interesting. Supposedly they have ringtails in southern Arizona but I've certainly never seen one.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

They're very shy. We used to have a few who would visit us on the deck at night, but aside from them, we've only rarely seen them in real life - it's almost always on camera. They're beautiful little creatures.

[@Professor-Patti]

Fascinating. The weave is the funniest and cutest thing I've seen an animal do, I think. How did ring-tailed lemurs get to Texas?

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

They're not lemurs. They do look similar, but they are actually related to raccoons (though the only thing they seem to have in common, to my mind, is the tail rings).

[@Professor-Patti]

@@TexasBackyardWildlife Thanks, I had no idea we had animals like these in the USA. What characters they are! I can't decide which is cuter, their weave or the squirrel bunny hop, especially the front view- LOL! Thanks again for sharing, my daughter & I are thoroughly enjoying your videos & live streams, appreciate you.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Thank you Patti!

[@Professor-Patti]

@@TexasBackyardWildlife 😇Of course. You guys are great.

[@thekatalexander]

These are the cutest creatures I have ever seen! 😊

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Aren't they fun to watch?

[@josephgarrison7424]

MALE CARDINALS ARE BEAUTIFUL ,WE HAVE MOM THATS PG WITH HER 3 ON THE WAY:-):-):-)NEXT SPRING

[@jenniferbethparishwhite688]

A ninja and an agility master 😂😂😂

[@Da_Xman]

VERY cool video...! ✨👍🥴✨

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We published this video last year, I think, but even now, about 2 nights out of 3, we still see a mama ringtail cross the gate with a wobbling youngster behind her. We smile every single time we see it.

[@Da_Xman]

@@TexasBackyardWildlife ✨🥴👍✨

[@DrSpooglemon]

I just found out about these animals. They are like a cross between a racoon and a cat.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Ringtails are beautiful and very graceful (when they're not wobbling over the spikey top of a gate). They're distant cousins of raccoons. Sometimes called "ringtail cats" because even though they're not related to cats at all, there's certainly a resemblance.

[@techshabby0001]

I've never seen ringtails on a video before. In Hawaii, at the Honolulu Zoo, they have ring tails, from what I hear anyway. They look like a cross between a raccoon and a cat.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

They look exactly like a cross between a raccoon and a cat. You're right. They are related to raccoons, though apart from their tails they're very, very different.

[@thomascraddock8697]

Cat, eat your heart out.

[@infinitedelete]

it’s not agility training, they just do not feel safe in the middle of the open on a flat surface (the driveway with no grass / shrubbery around) especially since the gate allows an open airflow it feels very very exposed to predators. edit: the restlessness and running around in the trees definitely does seem like “exercise” but the clip at 1:15 you can clearly see their “nope not exposing myself that much i’ll just take the high ground” expression

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

You're right that they don't much care for being on the ground. We see them in the trees and they visit us each night up on the roof (they will look down at Dan and me when we sit on the deck with a glass of wine). But they're very exposed to great horned owls, for example, when they're tip-toeing slowly across the top of the gate like that. They could run across the drive (which has trees and brush on both sides) in about 2 seconds.

[@infinitedelete]

@@TexasBackyardWildlife an owl can’t dive at the spikes would be my guess as to why they feel safer, especially the younger one as it’s weaving in between it probably feels very safe being surrounded by metal

[@raphlvlogs271]

do ringtails scavenge from dumpsters and bins like raccoons do?

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Not that we've ever seen. They hunt - they're ferocious rat-catchers. We also occasionally see them eating the little wild persimmons here, but mainly they hunt.

[@bmx135536]

What cameras do you use or recommend?

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

We use Dahua security cameras. Here's a link from our site: texasbackyardwildlife.com/information-about-our-cameras-and-set-up/ Feel free to email us if you need some specific info.

[@LittleSisterLo]

Have you spotted them at night outside of your camera footage? Curious to know what color eyeshine they have.

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

Good question, and we don't know the answer. There have been a few who used to visit us when we sat out on the deck at night - they would come to the edge of the roof and ask for food - but they were illuminated by the deck lights and we never saw their eyeshine. They're pretty shy little creatures and aside from our roof friends we rarely see them in real life.

[@toad3800]

Is this a ringtail lemur? What is a ring tail exactly?

[@TexasBackyardWildlife]

It's a member of the same family as raccoons, but very different - they only thing they really have in common is a ringed tail. Native to the US and northern Mexico. Some people call them ringtail cats, but they are properly just called "ringtails".