The rintel is an animal that receives various names such as northern cacomixtle or bassariscus astutus. It is an animal the size of a cat, although slimmer than this and lives from the North American Midwest to southern Mexico. It belongs to the raccoon family, Procyonidae.
Physical appearance
The Basariqui is somewhat smaller in size than a cat, although it is slimmer than the latter. It has a body that more closely resembles a weasel than a feline. The color of its hair is a beautiful yellowish-greyish tone, with a gray-white stripe that runs along the entire belly of the animal from the throat to the inside of its hind legs.
However, the most striking detail of its appearance is its long ringed tail The tail exceeds the length of the body and is broken white color with 14 - 16 almost black horizontal stripes. She has purple eyes, with a sweet and intelligent look at the same time. His weight does not exceed a kilo and a half.
Behaviour
The rintel or cacomixtle lives in arid and rocky areas and is a nocturnal animal, which is why it has large purple eyes. An extraordinary characteristic of the basariqui is that it can rotate the direction of its rear ankles 180º, which gives it enormous agility when climbing rocks and trees It can descend vertically speeding down a tree trunk. It is an extraordinary climber, which slides through cracks and rocky ledges with great ease.
Feeding
The rintels are omnivorous and have a varied diet depending on what they find daily. For this reason we include in their diet a diversity of fruits and berries as well as other types of food such as insects, lizards, eggs, birds and mice. They are great nocturnal hunters and have great agility which allows them to easily catch without being detected.
Domestication
Years ago the rintel was a domesticated animal in Mexico and the US for its ability and effectiveness in hunting mice and other rodents, which allowed miners to keep their cabins free of small vermin. For this reason it is known in some cases as the miner's cat when it is not a cat at all.
Confusion of the rintel with other animals
Sometimes the rintel is confused with other animals, for example the ring-tailed lemur of Madagascar, with the ring-tailed cat and even with the genet.
