Tracks
We received an interesting picture of a track late this winter. What animal made it? Was is a mountain
lion? The possibility seemed to raise
its head as there were no obvious claw prints.
The pen in the picture gives an indication of size of the track.
We sent the picture to the Ron Andrews DNR biologist and received back the
following reply.
Dan and Dean: Even though my first inclination would be to call this
a cat track, after further assessment, I would call it a large canine track and
because of its size, I would call it a dog track. If you look at the
comparative size of the width and length of the track, it is much more oblong
front to back than side to side. If you use your imagination, you might
be able to ascertain claw marks although the soft and light amount of snow make
it darn near impossible to be sure. One can almost make an X between the
first and second toe on each side without touching the forward portion of the
heel pad. I do not consider myself a track expert so I am not saying that
I a 100 sure but I think that the
circumstantial evidence as well points in a different direction than Mt.
Lion. It has been over 4 years since we have been able to validate the
presence of a
I added the other pictures on this page.
Its kind of fun to look at tracks. At first glance, some features are obvious,
but it takes attention to detail to really learn to read them well.
Looking at the sequence of three dog tracks, you see the oval nature of the
track, and the ability to draw and X across the footprint.
For me, it’s the two middle toes which seem to point most to large dog. One toe is usually leading the other in a
mountain lion track as indicated by “A” in the photo. Most dog tracks are more symmetrical.
As Ron points out, we haven’t had a good solid mountain lion report lately,
but keep your eyes open, record or photograph anything significant and submit
it to the proper authorities in needed.
