We recently received a State Wildlife Grant (SWG) from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to continue our research on ringtail ecology and conservation in the state of California.

This project will accomplish the following:

• Model an updated statewide distribution map

• Develop new genetic markers for population studies

Distribution map modeling:

Objective 1 – aggregate and verify all accessible camera trap and community science observations of ringtails.

Objective 2 – deploy cameras in areas of historical ringtail range where existing cameras and observations are insufficient.

Objective 3 – utilize all confirmed incidental and targeted ringtail observations to develop an updated distribution map.

Genomics:

Objective 4 – identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci from high-quality ringtail samples currently available in CDFW, museum, and university archives.

Objective 5 – create a database of ringtail SNP genotype data.