In April, four members of our Natural Sciences team went to Sutter Buttes in the northern Central Valley, which is one of the seven California locales we will feature in the new Gallery of California Natural Sciences. There, our staff met with Biology Professor David Wyatt from Sacramento City College. Professor Wyatt is studying the ringtail, a cat sized mammal that is closely related to the raccoon. Ringtails are common to Sutter Buttes, but they are rare in the rest of California and even extinct in many parts of the state.

Professor Wyatt holds a ringtail for examination. Photo: Douglas Long.

Our staff spent a day helping Professor Wyatt and his undergraduate students as they tracked the Sutter Buttes ringtails. The group set out live traps, then returned to put radio collars on the ringtails. OMCA staff helped name two newly collared animals. “Maximus,” a very large ringtail, was named for his girth, whereas “Pigpen” earned his name by covering his coat with the bait—a mixture of raspberry jelly and wet cat food—then rolling in the dirt. In addition to a collar, Pigpen was given a sponge bath before being released.

Shawna, a student at SCC, radios the team to confirm a captured ringtail. Photo: Terrence McCarthy  

When the new Gallery of California Natural Sciences opens in 2012, look for more information about Maximus, Pigpen, and other Sutter Buttes ringtails. Professor Wyatt and his students will continue to share their research about the life and ecology of the ringtail as they map the range of ringtail territory and chart patterns of movement. The new gallery might include maps or visualizations of this data, along with a radio-collared ringtail in the “Rocky outcrop” exhibit case.  

OMCA Exhibit Manager John Perry releases a clean and collared Pigpen back into the wild. Photo: Terrence McCarthy