Vocalizations include squeaks, metallic chirps, whimpers, chitters, chucking, hisses, grunts, growls and ululations. Range Ringtails range across the southwestern USA and most of Mexico with outliers in northern California, Nebraska, Missouri and extreme southwest Wyoming. Like most members of the Order Carnivora, these hunters eat a wide variety of food. They have a seasonal diet, with plants and insects the favorite fall food, mammals and birds more common in winter, and insects dominate in summer. Preferred mammals include mice, woodrats, squirrels and rabbits.
Ringtails also feed on nectar from agaves.
Great horned owls are their major predator, along with coyotes, raccoons and bobcats. Habits and Habitat Primarily nocturnal, ringtails develop an aversion to daylight at a young age. As might be expected for such an agile animal, ringtails inhabit rough, rocky habitat, usually not too far from water, although they can subsist without free water if their diet consists of high protein prey or fruit and insects. Ringtails den in tree hollows, rock crevices, other animals' abandoned burrows or even abandoned buildings. Except in bad weather, they move frequently, rarely spending more than three straight nights in one den.