what is this on my game-cam?

[dretd]

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True, they also are contractually obligated to not declaw, but it doesn't mean no one does. And plenty of foolish owners out there with more $ than sense.

What is your take on the photos in question? Feline or Vulpine?

Vulpine. Grey fox. I've seen them sleeping 40'+ up in trees... They are lean and strong and have tails made for tightrope walking. The most decidedly un-feline thing about the photos is not the animal itself though, it's the rapid way it is scanning its surroundings. Cats just don't change orientation and trot around like that. Look at the time stamps.

Good catch on the time stamps, the first two were out of order and far apart so I didn't look at the rest. I was thinking much the same about its behaviour in that it was maybe sniffing around which is more canine rather than listening and watching as would be more feline. I kept getting hung up (as many folks seem to have) on the feline-looking tail. It is intersting that we tend to gravitate to an answer that fits within our experience--I've never seen a Gray Fox and this didn't look like the Red Fox we have so many of. I've seen several exotic cats that look very wild so that was the first thing that jumped to my mind.

I am very glad that Woodmort has been patient and putting up more pictures and evidence to help give more photos to compare and contrast the OP's photos with--really help to creat a broader data base!

I am sure the OP will be happy to hear that more folks are voting for Vulpine!

 

[Tylt33]

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I love exotic cats, owning a Singapura and two snow Bengals myself. I've been to too many cat shows over the last few decades, and while the body fits and the tail LOOKS feline, I don't think it is. Even the bigger domestic outcrosses don't have tails of that length and girth. I think the camera is deceptive in making the tail look narrower than it actually is. I think it is a gray fox with the reddish bottom part of the tail not showing on camera. You can kind of see it on the last photo. Image the red not showing in this photo:

Whatcha think?

 

[Tylt33]

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Just to clarify.... Jaguar and panther are synonymous, while mountain lion, catamount, puma, and cougar are synonymous.

 

[dretd]

Quote:
I love exotic cats, owning a Singapura and two snow Bengals myself. I've been to too many cat shows over the last few decades, and while the body fits and the tail LOOKS feline, I don't think it is. Even the bigger domestic outcrosses don't have tails of that length and girth. I think the camera is deceptive in making the tail look narrower than it actually is. I think it is a gray fox with the reddish bottom part of the tail not showing on camera. You can kind of see it on the last photo. Image the red not showing in this photo:
http://islandconnectionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/2010-gray-fox.jpg

Whatcha think?

I thinks a good picture! Did you take it yourself ie do you have a lot of these guys around? I also have noted that these guys have black patches on the side of the snout which in the dark would make the snout dissappear. Another point in favor of the Gray Fox as the star of the photo.

By the way, I haven't seen any Singapuras but the Snow Bengals are really beautiful! The other interesting thing is that the show cats I've seen are smaller than the pet cats of the same variety. Like Maine Coons--I worked with a breeder and they were maybe 12 lbs but the neutered males as pets were the more expected 18 lbs. I theorize that it was the fairly early neutering done on the pet quality ones allowing them to grow a bit bigger. That, or the breeder had unusually small cats.

I hope the OP gets more photos on her gamecam.

 

[Tylt33]

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Just a photo I found online. I have seen them at night around here, but only sleeping in trees during the daytime. My male Bengal is four years old and only 10 pounds, but his uncle was 25 pounds of muscle at just over a year of age. The breeder had a guy walk up at a cat show and offer her almost $5k in cash for him. Maine Coons are beautiful, but having one cat with HCM I would never get a Maine Coon until they eliminate HCM from the breed. Too much heartache

 

[mrpekinduck]

I think it looks like a big weasel.

 

[woodmort]

Thanks, I didn't think of the time sequence thing. The particular camera I used for my cat and the next fox photos takes a 3 picture sequence about 10 sec. apart--in the one of the cat he moves maybe six inches, the fox one has him in three different poses. Again if the OP's animal were a cat the only it would have moved that much would be if it were actually chasing something--a fox is all over the place in a matter of second--I get very few photos of a stopped animal unless it is investigating something or--like one of the photos, licking its mate.

 

[woodmort]

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Not around here: mountain lion, catamount, puma, cougar, painter and panther are all the same animal. Of course there never were jaguars this far north except the XKG's.

 

[Tylt33]

Quote:
Not around here: mountain lion, catamount, puma, cougar, painter and panther are all the same animal. Of course there never were jaguars this far north except the XKG's.

Panther is a common misnomer for cougar/puma/etc. A mountain lion (puma concolor) is not part of the big cat subfamily pantherinae, it is a small cat, part of the felinae subfamily.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Not around here: mountain lion, catamount, puma, cougar, painter and panther are all the same animal. Of course there never were jaguars this far north except the XKG's.

Panther is a common misnomer for cougar/puma/etc. A mountain lion (puma concolor) is not part of the big cat subfamily pantherinae, it is a small cat, part of the felinae subfamily.

I'm not disagreeing with you but there is no stopping local's from calling something what they want. As a matter of fact, I live on Painter Hill which is named because of the mountain lion that was seen and/or shot here back in 1700's.

I posted a video of a couple of grey foxes on Youtube is you care to see them live: