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?
The Sac Rag 
Isn’t that Gameguy’s merkin? [SNAP!]
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Racoon?
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I would vote fox.
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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?
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Panda.
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red panda? Was it near the zoo?
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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
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Wiley Coyote
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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?
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It was some animal investor who “lost his tail” in the volatile market
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Really Really big caterpillar?
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Sasquatch mustache?
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Look, Smithers, I’m Davy Crockett!
There are a lot of critter options down on the river. I vote fox.
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OK, let’s try that again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfMUwCKtWMI
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Wookie pelt. Beware of Mandelorians by the river. [Geek FIVE!]
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Wookie Pelt is, coincidentally, what Turty Squip calls his whatchmacallit thing that he said.
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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.
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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.
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