Track ID help?

B

bmilla35

Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Messages
1,602
Hey fellas!

I was at my camp today tearing down the tree stands for the winter and saw this track frozen perfectly (note that these perfect tracts seem quite blurry cause they were taken on my cell phone :foot:)
paw2.jpg

paw-1.jpg
 
Tough one.

Could it be two tracks, one on top of the other?

Were there more? If so, how far apart were they?

Do you have fisher cats in your area? Is that a second print in the upper right corner of the second photo? If so, it is consistent with fisher cat or another big weasel.
 
From Wikipedia

Being arboreal, fishers are most often found in coniferous or mixed forests with high, continuous canopy cover. They avoid open spaces. Fishers are solitary, only associating with other fishers for mating purposes. Recent studies, as well as anecdotal evidence, suggest that the highly adaptable fishers have begun making inroads into suburban backyards, farmland, and even semi-urban areas in Michigan and Pennsylvania[5].
 
based on tony's info I'm going with fisher or pine marten....definintely some member of the weasel family. most weasels as far as I know are bounders... leaving a track pattern like : : : : : : : but than again I am very weak and inexperienced at tracking... I hope to remedy that this spring however.
 
Look at the bobcat and house cat tracks on the card-- takes my vote. A fisher would be cool to see though.
 
its unusual for cat tracks to overlap in an offset way like that.. they usually direct register or fall perfectly one into the other at least from what I've read... the tracks are to far away to determine whether ther is a nail mark or not...
 
Sorry the picture couldn't be more clear guys...like I said the phone is all i had on me. If it helps, the trail was right on a stone path.

Also, I have never seen a fisher in the area, but I saw a bobcat during rifle season, which was pretty cool. It slid down the hill on its rear end, seemed like a real character :D

To be honest, from the PDF, it looks almost like a skunks track
 
Those are indirect registered cat tracks.... they are distorted and refrozen. cats usually direct register but anything is possible... would have been good to see a gait pattern to see what it was up to.... it may have stopped to look at something or changed it gait to scratch itself.....
 
My first thought was fisher also, but fisher prints have a longer heel pad. I agree with the folks who think it is a double register of a cat track.

Was this the only print? Often times, following a trail and seeing other prints will give a better idea of what the animal is. For example, fishers have several fairly distinctive gaits (groupings of tracks), which are different from the gaits you would see with a cat.
 
This is a great thread. I had never even heard of a fisher before this, no matter what made those tracks I learned something today! Sweet!
 
Joel Stave said:
My first thought was fisher also, but fisher prints have a longer heel pad. I agree with the folks who think it is a double register of a cat track.

Was this the only print? Often times, following a trail and seeing other prints will give a better idea of what the animal is. For example, fishers have several fairly distinctive gaits (groupings of tracks), which are different from the gaits you would see with a cat.
Click to expand...

Nope...went on for about 50 feet or so
 
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