A Few Pics From A Recent Outing...

[Mistwalker]

A few pics from a recent outing. The whole thing will be in the W&SS section later, just thought I’d post some here too.

 

[Fiddleback]

Man, cool pics. What kinda tracks?

 

[Mistwalker]

Man, cool pics. What kinda tracks?

The first one is what looks to be a young or small coyote, the next two look like the front and back paw of a wolf but they keep saying there are no wolves in these parts so maybe a much larger coyote. I have been finding these tracks out there for a couple of years now. They did try to reintroduce the grey wolf about 80 miles north east of here some years back so who knows for sure. The ones after that are bear tracks.

 

[Brummie]

How do you know the canid tracks are coyote / wolf, rather than dogs? Anywhere there are people, you normally find dogs, or is this an area where dogs are actively kept out. Also, the shots at the end don't look like bear to me - look more like canid tracks where one foot has superimposed the other - so it seems there are 5 toes, when there are only 4. Shape and size looks completely wrong for bear.

Full disclosure - I have very little experience of North American wildlife, but I did use to carry out wildlife surveys in other parts of the world where they also have bears and wild canids.

PS - nice knife - I have one of Andy's knives, and now he is no longer taking custom orders, I'm monitoring what comes out of the Forge to find a second.

 

[Mistwalker]

How do you know the canid tracks are coyote / wolf, rather than dogs? Anywhere there are people, you normally find dogs, or is this an area where dogs are actively kept out. Also, the shots at the end don't look like bear to me - look more like canid tracks where one foot has superimposed the other - so it seems there are 5 toes, when there are only 4. Shape and size looks completely wrong for bear.

Full disclosure - I have very little experience of North American wildlife, but I did use to carry out wildlife surveys in other parts of the world where they also have bears and wild canids.

PS - nice knife - I have one of Andy's knives, and now he is no longer taking custom orders, I'm monitoring what comes out of the Forge to find a second.

That area is home to a fairly large coyote population. Their tracks are more oval than normal canine tracks, they walk with a distinctive gate, and their diet is usually a mix of berries, grains, and meats. These were taken back last winter

As for the larger canine tracks, I have been finding them for a couple of years, and sometimes miles away from the closest people tracks. I don't know for sure what they are but the middle two toes are a little closer together than most large canine tracks I've seen that did accompany people tracks. These are from last winter as well.

I don't think there is any superimposing going on here, and I don't recall ever seeing a canine track anything like this.

Oh, and thanks, the Hunter is an awesome knife and one of my favorites!

 

[BBQ BOY]

Still love that knife. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Mountain Wildman]

Cool pics, Andy Roy makes some really nice looking knives!!

 

[Brummie]

Canid tracks are always difficult to reliably identify because domestic dog prints are so ubiquitous and so variable. When I was a professional field biologist, even a couple of days' walk from the nearest human settlement, we wouldn't definitively use tracks to claim the presence of a wild species unless there was some other evidence. But doubtless, if there is a healthy coyote population in that area, then most of those smaller tracks you are seeing are probably coyotes. As a general rule, wild canid tracks tend to be more uniform and neater than domestic dogs - nature is a lot more punishing of deviation than dog breeders are.

I don't think there is any superimposing going on here, and I don't recall ever seeing a canine track anything like this.

Superimposing is exactly what this looks like to me. Try looking at that picture without the 3 leftmost lobes of the print - i.e. the two to the left of that little stick and the left lobe of the bottom pad - looks to me like a regular dog print that has partially overlapped the original print that those other 3 lobes belonged to.

This is not a good picture, but I dug it out cos it shows a brown bear print from Kyrgyzstan. You can see that the toes are a lot squarer. The print is also about 7" by 5". North American brown bears (i.e. grizzlies) will be bigger than this, black bears will be a bit smaller, but not the size of the prints in your photo.

Sorry if I'm taking this thread off topic -just think we should all keep observing & learning, and I hope you are getting that young'un whose legs are in the photo interested in wildlife. I certainly have a lot to learn now that I live in the US.

 

[Joe Fowler]

Not as familiar with each model.

Which one is this?

 

[chainring]

This is the original BushFinger. It's aging well!

 

[turt]

Again, thanks for sharing, I really enjoy your pics!

 

[Ridge-Runner]

Not as familiar with each model.

Which one is this?

This is the original BushFinger. It's aging well!

Hey chain this is the Hunter. Brian got rid of the OG BF (for some reason "shoulder shrug" )

 

[Mistwalker]

Canid tracks are always difficult to reliably identify because domestic dog prints are so ubiquitous and so variable. When I was a professional field biologist, even a couple of days' walk from the nearest human settlement, we wouldn't definitively use tracks to claim the presence of a wild species unless there was some other evidence. But doubtless, if there is a healthy coyote population in that area, then most of those smaller tracks you are seeing are probably coyotes. As a general rule, wild canid tracks tend to be more uniform and neater than domestic dogs - nature is a lot more punishing of deviation than dog breeders are.


Superimposing is exactly what this looks like to me. Try looking at that picture without the 3 leftmost lobes of the print - i.e. the two to the left of that little stick and the left lobe of the bottom pad - looks to me like a regular dog print that has partially overlapped the original print that those other 3 lobes belonged to.

This is not a good picture, but I dug it out cos it shows a brown bear print from Kyrgyzstan. You can see that the toes are a lot squarer. The print is also about 7" by 5". North American brown bears (i.e. grizzlies) will be bigger than this, black bears will be a bit smaller, but not the size of the prints in your photo.

Sorry if I'm taking this thread off topic -just think we should all keep observing & learning, and I hope you are getting that young'un whose legs are in the photo interested in wildlife. I certainly have a lot to learn now that I live in the US.

Your pic is a hind foot, but you may be right...I'm no expert tracker and it's been a lot of years since my livelihood depended on tracking animals and bears never were one of the animals we tracked. I just know bears have been sited in the general area lately and I have found what looks more like bear scat than canine scat. It is nearly 30,000 acres of wild life management area so you never know what may be there.

Given the size of the track, the directions of travel, and the proximity (or lack there of) of human traffic in the areas where I find them I'd feel better about it being a bear that small than a canine that large. It is hunting season so not much recreational hiking and camping going on this time of year. The front gate is a ten minute drive from my house so I am there three or four times a week and the only people I have seen even close to that area for the last couple of months have been hunter who had no dogs with them.

Again, thanks for sharing, I really enjoy your pics!

Thanks man, glad you enjoy them!

Hey chain this is the Hunter. Brian got rid of the OG BF (for some reason "shoulder shrug" )

Yeah yeah, I know. I just happen to like Jimmy, he's one of the good guys. Plus I get a certain satisfaction knowing one of the members of Jeff Randall's training team will be teaching classes using a Fiddleback Forge knife

edit: the funny part is that Jimmy is on a two week assignment working 12 and 16 hour days. He got the Bushfinger the day before he left and has yet to be able to do much with it. However he did say it was "going to get a lot of use quick" as soon as he got back home.