It’s likely you’ve never seen a ringtail. The nocturnal animal might be native to California but it’s elusive, preferring rural environments, and is chronically understudied. 

That’s even true for the experts. Kristyn Schulte, a biologist with Sacramento City College, has seen plenty of ringtails that she’s captured as part of her research. She’s been studying ringtails, which she describes as a two-pound cross between a weasel and a lemur, for nearly ten years. But she says she’s never naturally seen one in the wild. 

Schulte says the animal’s elusiveness might also be the reason that most Californians she meets don’t even know the animal exists. 

“The number one question I get is, ‘Is it a bird?’,” Schulte says. “People just don’t hear about them… like I grew up right outside of the Buttes in Yuba City and never knew a ringtail existed.”

That changed in 2012, when she met Sacramento City College biologist David Wyatt, who introduced her to the animal. She says her love for the animal grew after that, especially as she recognized gaps in research about them. 

Kristyn Schulte (seated left) discusses photos taken by a camera trap in the Sutter Buttes with Sacramento City College biologist David Wyatt (seated right), and a hiker, James, (standing) on April 6, 2025.Manola Secaira/CapRadio

That passion led Schulte to launch the California Ringtail Project earlier this year. It’s aimed at getting a better understanding about where ringtails live in California. 

One part of that involves setting out camera traps to spot them — like some she’s already monitoring in the Sutter Buttes, an area where they’ve long been known to live. This year, she plans on setting up more cameras throughout the state. 

CapRadio’s Manola Secaira spoke to Schulte about the launch of the project and what’s gone into her passion for the animal. 

This interview was edited for clarity and length. 

Why do you think there’s so much we don’t know about ringtails?

Okay, so they were protected before there was even an Endangered Species Act. They kind of fell into this weird category of being fully protected, but not considered threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. 

So, people didn't know how to study them, or were like, "Oh, they're fully protected, but they're not threatened or endangered." It's this gray area. So, there's that. They're related to raccoons, so then people are like, "Well, raccoons get into everything and are fine." They also have this folklore about them as being “miners' cats,” where they were not domesticated but tamed to help miners take out rodents. So there's that. 

So I think it's all these misconceptions, miscommunications.

It's not common for people to see ringtails just out and about. Why is that? 

From the preliminary research on my study, where they seem to be thriving is in areas of low human density. So already, people aren’t seeing them — if most people live in San Jose, San Francisco, LA, you're not seeing them there. We're not seeing them in Sacramento. 

They are living where people are more spread out. They are nocturnal. They are very secretive, very elusive.

Most of the time, when people have told me that they've seen one in the wild, it's either because it's come into a cabin to get food of some kind or it’s ran very quickly across the road. It’s not like they’re scared of people per se, but they also have to avoid the things that we do to our environment. So they’re not adverse to humans, they’re adverse to human behaviours. 

An image of a ringtail taken on April 2, 2025 by a camera trap set out in the Sutter Buttes.Courtesy of Kristyn Schulte

Despite fascination with the animal, there’s not much research about them or understanding about where they currently live. Can you tell me how your work through the California Ringtail Project will help fill in that gap? 

The number one mission of the Ringtail Project is to update the distribution map. The most recent data we have on their distribution in the state is from 1988.

We know, generally, where they are, but then there are areas where we think they should be where we're not seeing them. Or areas where we're like, no, they won't be there, and then someone finds one. Someone just reported one on iNaturalist, south of the Sacramento Airport on the other side of I-5 on River Road in West Sac, and we were astonished. That was a big surprise.

So, I am doing a statewide survey to update the distribution map. The cameras we set in the Sutter Buttes are just to test our methods before we spend a lot of time, money, and energy going elsewhere. We know that they’re here, so we’re testing things out here. 

Then where we know they are and need to investigate further, we will be installing hair snares to be able to do genetics work off the hairs. The California Fish and Wildlife Genetics Research Unit will be making new genetic markers — so that the next big push that I'll be doing, a genetics check-in to see how they're doing.

Kristyn Schulte, a Sacramento City College biologist studying ringtails, checks on some camera traps set up to capture images of ringtails in the Sutter Buttes on April 6, 2025.Manola Secaira/CapRadio

You’ve been researching ringtails for years. What do you love about them? 

Well, as a normal person, I love them because they're very cute. As a scientist, I'm worried. 

If you look at older studies … their number one threat was habitat fragmentation. Ninety-five percent of California's riparian forests are gone, and that was full of ringtails. You know, Discovery Park, the American River, all through Sacramento would have been ringtail [habitat] and now it's not. 

So I was worried about that and then the more I dive into their history and the observations, I see mangy ringtail. So then they're getting into rodenticides, and now they're having mange just like we see in our coyote populations. I think that they're getting hammered by predators that are increasing in population …  I just think that they're getting hit on all sides. They need structure and cover to hide from predators on the ground and above. 

How can people participate in the California Ringtail Project? 

If you see them on your property, please let me know. If you find a dead [ringtail] body, please let me know, because I need it for genetics work. 

And like I said, I grew up in these rivers. I grew up camping and hiking, and I had no idea [they existed]. So I think just us having this conversation — these things exist and they're cute and maybe they're not doing well.

For instance, I had a project outside of Barstow reach out to me about wanting to set cameras down there. They’re showing me overhead satellite imagery and they're like, "Do you think they could be here?" 

And I was like, "You know, that's an old desert town. Go to the bar and ask people, hey, have you seen these here?" Because a lot of people will say, "Oh yeah, I know them. My aunt Judy had one as a pet in 1948,” or [something like that].  

So I think just starting to make it more of a topic of conversation — that’s what I want. I want more awareness. If you don't find one and you don't have data to report, just being aware that this is a possibly imperiled, beautiful, native Californian mammal.