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My daughter and I came upon the detached tail of some sort of rodent in a park near the American River this weekend. Follow the “Continue reading” link to help me identify the animal.
Here it is: the end on the right seems to be the natural end, the end on the left was once attached to… something. It’s the color combination that really confuses me. Could it possibly belong to a baby fox? Or a really huge chipmunk?
19 Comments
Isn’t that Gameguy’s merkin? [SNAP!]
October 28th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Racoon?
October 28th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I would vote fox.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Racoon came to mind as well because of the appearance of stripes, but that’s where the reddish hair threw me off. Though I suppose a reddish racoon is in the realm of possibility. After losing his tail, did he go into his room, only to find Gideon’s bible?
October 28th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Panda.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
red panda? Was it near the zoo?
October 28th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Skunk
I have a wonderful book on scatology, immensely helpful for identifying animal droppings on trails and in the backyard but there was no section on animal tail identification
Bill
October 28th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Wiley Coyote
October 28th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
basuraman: didn’t the red panda go to red panda heaven? This was not near the zoo and I’m going with No on Skunk… That’s Measure D, right?
October 28th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
It was some animal investor who “lost his tail” in the volatile market
October 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Really Really big caterpillar?
October 28th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Sasquatch mustache?
October 28th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Look, Smithers, I’m Davy Crockett!
There are a lot of critter options down on the river. I vote fox.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
October 28th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
OK, let’s try that again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfMUwCKtWMI
October 28th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Wookie pelt. Beware of Mandelorians by the river. [Geek FIVE!]
October 29th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Wookie Pelt is, coincidentally, what Turty Squip calls his whatchmacallit thing that he said.
October 29th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I think there isn’t enough undercoat for it to be a fox’s tail. It could be some variety of squirrel. It doesn’t look all bloody or nasty, so maybe it simply fell off someone’s cap while they were down by the river.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Since writing this post I have realized that plain old squirrels have a lot more red in their tail than you think. You don’t realize this until you see a tail separated from its body. I think I was channeling my inner Marlon Perkins here.
October 7th, 2009 at 11:31 am
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