I don't even know why I have an animal tracks book.
I'm so rarely able to figure out what anything is.
If I were a dedicated animal tracker, I guess I'd have hopped right down there in the mud, and planted a ruler next to the tracks.
But I wasn't carrying one, it was more than a hoppable distance, and I didn't want to get my good shoes muddy. And it probably wouldn't have helped, anyway.
If you know, please put me out of my misery. I'm to the point of imagining snickering little critters, roaming the creek banks at night. They've painstakingly carved no-such-animal mystery tracks onto the bottoms of their gaily painted miniature stilts.
22 comments:
Raccoon? I have no way of telling the size here, but the photos with two tracks side-by-side look like one (on the left) is the front "hand" print and the other (on the left) is the more animal-looking "foot" print.
It's hard to tell, but I'm inclined to agree with Lorianne because of the side-by-side tracks.
You are probably right. The size would be compatible with a raccoon I think, but on all the raccoon track pics I see, they have 5 toes, and these seem to only have 4. Maybe I am just not looking at it right.
I think I forgot to mention, these are all pics of the same prints, just from different angles.
I'm not sure but they look scary. LOL
I like your imaginary critters image the best. I'm gonna go with that.
(Though maybe it's a raccoon named Scabbers?)
I don't know, there's just something about them that doesn't look like a raccoon. I think the claws are too distinct.
I've enjoyed your wildlife observations very much. One of your earlier posts cleared up a mystery for me - why there was a headless rabbit in my fenced backyard. I didn't think the cat did it - it was too big and he never eats the head anyway.
It looks like a skunk to me.
http://www.bear-tracker.com/stskunk.html
A raccoon looks different to me.
http://www.bear-tracker.com/coon.html
Werewolf!
Hedgehog? Badger? There is a big one that lives over here near my drive. About the size or slightly larger than a big racoon.
I can't tell you what it is but I can at least tell you what it isn't. It is not a member of the feline family, bobcat etc., because there is obvious claw prints. Members of the feline family retract their claws when they walk. However the canine family, wolf etc., do not. I would lean more toward a wolf or other large canine. It does not look like any raccoon track that I have seen.
maybe turtle.. =p
I really don't know but it's interesting. I like looking at tracks and trying to figure them out. Around here mostly I see GEESE tracks in my yard... ;)
Phillip, nah, too small for that!
Pablo, I am now almost certain that its name is Scabbers, whatever it is. :)
Thanks Patsy, yeah that one was a mystery to me too at first!
Lythrum, you may be right! But the skunks are supposed to have 5 toes too...
CPP, aren't weres normally bigger than the real thing? It'd have to be a baby one. ;)
Annie, no badgers or hedgehogs in Alabama... you must have a groundhog!
James, it's too small to be a dog, unless maybe there's a feral Shih Tzu or something. :) No wolves here either BTW.
Hmm well that is strange. What seems to be a real comment, that goes to what is just an ad blog. I usually delete comments like that. But if the ad-blogger is actually (maybe) reading your blog? Hmm.
If anyone really does know animal tracks, I took some pictures in my friend's sandbox one night. It looked like several different types of animals - it was really neat!
Weasel?
this is a neat general site: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/nature/track.htm
hmm. maybe a mink? (word verification is "mingly" so it apparently agrees with me.)
http://culpeper.vaswcd.org/animal%20tracks.pdf
could it be a coyote?
They don't look like raccoon tracks to me but I'm not an expert tracker. Very interesting...
Nice set of imprints, whatever the critter was...
Ok, I spent way more time on this than I would like to admit. lol
My gut said this was a raccoon track without any question. but with all the comments suggesting otherwise I questioned my many years of critter experience. lol again...
So after much research and until proven otherwise. I still say these are raccoon tracks.
Craig
The left one is part of a raccoon print (one digit buried by the other print maybe) and the right one looks like a weasel. I've been tracking a feral ferret for 5 weeks now. She sometimes forages with a raccoon family! (Ferrets are small weasels.) See my Red Room blogs at www.redroom.com/author/jennifer-van-bergen. There are some links to photos in "The Zen of Tracking" blog.
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