Help ID this track

"Highway rest area" just increased the odds greatly that it is a domesticated canine.
Find any yellow snow?:D
 
Les said:
"Highway rest area" just increased the odds greatly that it is a domesticated canine.
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Could it have been one of Tony’s girlfriends? :confused: :eek: :confused:




Sorry for that low blow, …but I could not resist. :rolleyes:





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
Big Mike said:
Could it have been one of Tony’s girlfriends? :confused: :eek: :confused:
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No.... it would have looked more like this.:D

755945852_0f480d07d2.jpg
 
Doug,
Different shape all together. A cat's oa shape is round while a dog's is egg or oval... nail marks are the dead giveaway. Cats don't walk with their nails out, unless they are cornering at high speed or something.
 
Magnussen said:
No.... it would have looked more like this.:D

755945852_0f480d07d2.jpg
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Camel, Rich?

The print in Tony's picture is a canine. That is as far as we can go based on the focus, lack of reference, and apparent snow melt.

There is no way that print is a bear. A bear's hind feet look entirely different. (The closest thing to it I can think of is human - or bigfoot!) The front foot can easily be distinguished by FIVE TOES in front of the pad where a canine (or feline) has four. Also, the trailing edge of the foot pad is concave or straight, while a canine's is convex.

Here are a couple examples I posted a couple of years ago:

Bear:
176299445-L.jpg

Rear in front of front


176302143-L.jpg

Front

Canine
176301583-L.jpg
http://pritch.smugmug.com/photos/176301583-L.jpg

I originally posted the canine print because we couldn't identify it, either. ;)

-- FLIX
 
tonym said:
Thanks everyone for your input and I am sorry to post such an inconclusive print. Next time thanks to all your great info, I know to get more detail.
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On the contrary, we got three pages of good material out of it! :thumbup:

I'm especially interested in the link that compares various dogs to a wolf print. I'm eager to spend time looking at that.

The suggested requirements get people thinking about what type of print it is, so that rather than react ("Yikes, that's huge!"), you analyze ("well, now wait a minute...").

Note that as soon as you mentioned it was a highway rest stop, lots of people changed their guesses to a dog.

Welcome to the world of tracking, by the way. It's a combination of art and science, as Magnussen says... and it's fairly easy to learn and teach yourself just by trying it. There's something about tracking that's hard-wired into people. My older boy (he's 6) is already quite good with the local animals, but when my youngest was only two (over a year ago), he went out with me and *rapidly* figured out how to do it. I have a photo of him crouched over a raccoon print, tracing the contours with a stick. I never showed him that, but he already knows the procedure! Not because he's a born tracker, but because we all are.
 
Yes, I heard/read about those instances back when they occurred out there.
Watchful said:
Things do get weird: everyone by now knows about the cougar that was shot and killed by police in the center of an established Chicago neighborhood...which is like finding a cougar in Queens, NY! And similarly, a coyote strolled into a Loop sandwich shop and jumped into the drink cooler to relax. There are areas completely bounded by civilization (yes, even the Loop!)... but then, this is why these stories make national news.

Watchful, since you're in Chicago it's understandable why you made the statement below. Realize that there ARE Mountain Lions and Eastern Timber Wolves in the area the photo was taken. They traverse a rather large range in the New England states, and do on occasion travel through populated areas, mostly during the night hours. I worked with USFS in CT/RI, and in FL on Big Cat projects; and spent over 20 years in the Wilds of New England. And I have seen both, Eastern Mountain Lions and Eastern Timber Wolves in CT. A friend in SE CT had a wolf hybrid when we were growing up, and I got pretty familiar with it's tracks in comparision to the other dogs that were sometimes around. I say sometimes because the hybrid was'nt friendly towards other dogs or most people. The owner eventually put it down because it was'nt easily controlled. Don't be too quick to dismiss the fact of what lies just beyond one's doorstep. Interesting to find out if more tracks appear in the same area in weeks to come. In years to come more folks will have seen or have visits in their yards by larger predators IMO.

But overall, we should be skeptical of cougar claims and wolf claims except in areas where they are common... or if there is supporting evidence of them (scat, fur, missing pets, etc.) in uncommon areas.

Any tracker will concur with your skepticism, Magnussen: you don't go off a single set of prints, and never off of a single footprint. You follow the trail, not the print!
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p1010009tf5.jpg


Tony, here is a photo of my dog Aiko’s paw print (an Akita/Husky mix).

As you can see it really splays out in the snow.

It looks huge, but she is less then 100 pounds (at this point).




"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
I know Mike. I have seen your Dog's print in the snow, but this one was about twice the size! But it was an old print and it did look like it melted and froze; distorting the track!
 
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