animal id'ers-What could this have been?

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I live in southwest Iowa and thought I had seen all the animals around here but this one must have been on the lam from a pet store or something. It ran humpbacked like a racoon but was a very light shade of tan with wiry hair that was sticking straight up. The size was a little bigger than a cat, like a small to mid size dog. It did not run close to the ground like a badger. It had a moderate size tail. Mountain cats are in the area but they tell me they are as tall as a man when laid out, and they are very shy and this animal was running across the road in broad daylight.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), June 17, 2001

Answers

Fred, It could have been a ground hog which is in the size range you are talking about. Yes they do get that big. I live in south central Iowa and we have ground hogs here that when they stand up on their back feet are close to 3 ft tall. My Aussie can take out all but the biggest and when they decide to fight back, it is something to see. (That is usually when I run for the gun as the Aussie doesn't like to back down).

Another possibility, but remote is a bobcat. They are bigger than a large domestic cat.

Oh and the reason we have cougars in southern Iowa now is because of a re-wilding project re-introduced them into northern MO where they were indigineous and the cats have crossed the state line into IA where they never have been. Oh and speaking of re-wilding, you might be on the look out for rattle snakes as well. DNR has been re- introducing them to south central and southwestern IA (even though they are NOT indigineous to the area and NOT endangered). I guess I need to get off my soapbox : )

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), June 17, 2001.


Nice to see some other Iowans here :)

Brendan, Grinnell, IA

-- Brendan K Callahan (sleeping@netins.net), June 17, 2001.


Brings to mind a woodchuck to me also.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), June 17, 2001.

Yes it is nice to see a few of us from IA here.

A groundhog is another name for a woodchuck.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), June 17, 2001.


Possum?

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), June 17, 2001.


My guess would be a porcupine. http://www.iwrc-online.org/kids/Facts/Mammals/porcupine.htm

-- Trisha-MN (tank@linkup.net), June 17, 2001.

Oops, you said it RAN. I doubt you'd see a porcupine running.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@Linkup.net), June 17, 2001.

You've had some good ideas here. We have rehabers here that specialize in porcupines(go figure!)and that sounds like what you saw. They can travel very rapidly if they want too. They just don't often want to! Haven't noticed ground hogs(woodchucks) quite so agitated that their hair would stick up like that but one might have felt threatened by something. Sounds interested doesn't it? :-)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), June 17, 2001.

Want to thank you all for taking the time to reply. These are all excellent. My wife had seen some woodchucks in a friends back yard in this area recently and that may be what I saw. Normally we are a bit south of the porcupine range, but they say armadillos are slowly expanding their range northward so porcupines are no doubt capable of a southward expansion. Pocket gophers I used to trap and get 20 cents for their feet and they were quite a bit like a rat, but am sure their could be species of them I haven't seen. Thanks again to all.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), June 17, 2001.

Sounds like a ferret to me, especially the description of wiry hair sticking straight up. Thought all the wild ones were very rare to gone.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), June 18, 2001.


Could it have been an oppossum? They're usually slow-moving, and will "play dead" when cornered, but they can motor along when they get the notion. I'm also wondering if there's been any reports of fishers out your way, (looks similar to a marten or ferret), they've been moving into our section of Ontario. Got a nice picture of one in a pine tree couple years ago, have been seeing the tracks all winter, and saw one again running across a field last winter.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), June 18, 2001.

Fred, sounds like a Wolverine to me. Absolutely the meanest animal per pound, they run hunched up and a little side-ways it seems, hair is not tight to the body so it might look as if it stuck upward, they make noises somewhere between a grunt and a growl. Give them all the room they want and then some. Maureen

-- Maureen Stevenson (maureen@mtaonline.net), June 24, 2001.

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