Okay...
damp ground ...I forgot to measure the stride.
Actually, there's a couple of things to watch for. Stride length is good, but also consistency of the track. The spacing between the right and left is important, and also the angle of the light is bad in these pictures. There's a lot of detail missing, unfortunately.
This picture shows the stride length pretty well, actually, and I can see quite a cluster of prints there: the animal stopped here for some reason. Probably sniffing the moist ground due to the scents that were trapped there.
Here's where I make a couple of startling claims. I don't think this was either a bobcat or a lynx, based on this one shot: I see a domestic dog sniffing around for things.
First, there are only three toe pads. You can see it in the first picture too. A cat spreads its weight evenly across all four toe pads. I see weight on only three. Dogs don't need to distribute weight on all toes when walking slowly, so you can get three pads off four toes.
Also, a cat tends to place its rear foot back into the same print as the front foot, creating a double impression that slightly blurs the edges of the side walls (the feet aren't exactly the same size), and would defnitely press that fourth toe pad down for me to see. I don't see that here.
Most importantly, a cat track leaves a three-lobed (M-shaped) heel print, as do many wolves and coyotes. I don't see that here: I see a two-lobed (heart-shaped) imprint, which is pretty much only the domestic dog.
I also see what I think are claw prints around the toe pads. Neither cougars nor bobcats leave little dots in front of the toe pads. That's a wolf or a dog... and based on the two-lobed heel pad, it's not a wolf. Indeed, it's a dog who doesn't get a lot of attention, as exercised dogs have short nails, and house dogs tend to get nails groomed. I may be wrong about those dots being claw marks because....
This print isn't very clean. You can see a small stone has fallen into the heel pad well: if this wasn't there in the top picture, the sidewall has begun to collapse and that shows either inadvertent tampering by Possum or longer fur around the foot: longer fur around the pads is typical of a dog more so than any US-based cat.
That said, it's tough to judge from only two photos with the sun at a really bad angle to see detail. I assume this was taken in the early morning, based on the shadow lengths. A couple of shots of each print, with a flashlight held at different angles to minimize shadow, would be ideal.
Edited to add: It's also entirely possible that Possum could post a third picture, of a different print at a slightly different angle, and I'd say "Yup: Cougar!" I'm only basing this off two photos.
A cougar was shot & killed by LEOs in the north side of Chicago about 2 months ago.
I'm familiar with that neighborhood. Finding a live cougar in that area--and DNA suggests it was from the Dakota areas as I recall--is as astounding as finding a live ostrich in Chicago. I've been asked how close it was to the city itself, and will assure you that this was very much *in* the city itself.
No kidding, this would be like a cougar in Brooklyn, or in SF's Russian Hill area. Just astounding.
