Can anyone identify these tracks?

Ernest Thompson Seton has a very good book entitled "Animal Tacks and Hunter Signs". There is a lifetime of knowledge in this book. Page 88: "in the coyote track, ........,the two outer pads are markedly larger than the two inner or central toe pads" Now because eastern coyotes are hybrids this may not follow. A very interesting observation nonetheless.

This book was first published in 1925, the one I bought was printed in 1978 from Laurentian Press. It may still be available??? It covers all the basics for tracking. That little point made above would probably be news to some very experienced trackers.
 
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Heh, some of you talk as if all tracks fall into the same rigid box of characteristics all of the time. They don't.

Wolf track
stride.jpg


Wolf Identification, Prepared by Patricia A. Tucker, Daniel L. Davis, and Robert R. Ream

The wolf's stride length at a trot is generally more than that of other species with similar tracks. Stride is the distance from one footprint in a trail to the next footprint made by the same foot, and is usually the measurement found in track identification books. WEP has found that measurement of intergroup distance is easier and less subject to error than measurement of stride. Intergroup distance is the distance from one print to the next (fig. 11). Several intergroup distance measurements should be taken to determine an average.

A wolf's front feet are larger than its hind feet, and the toes spread more. The hind foot often lands in the print made by the front foot on the same side.

Wolf tracks are similar in shape to coyote and dog tracks (figs. 12-16) The track of a wolf is considerably larger than a coyote's, but tracks of some breeds of dogs overlap those of a wolf. Harris and Ream (1983) developed a method to aid in distinguishing between those dog breeds and wolf tracks. This method relies on measurements intergroup distance made from casts of undistorted tracks. See Harris and Ream (1983) for necessary measurements. The authors caution that this method should not be used in isolation, but in conjunction with other relevant information such as length of stride and track pattern. They also suggest that only tracks greater than 4 inches (11 cm) long be subjected to this method (Harris, pers. commun. ). Tracks less than this length may be assumed to be dogs or coyotes. Only a few breeds of dogs such as Great Danes, St. Bernards and blood hounds leave tracks longer than 4 inches, and the method can be used to eliminate these breeds. The tracks of German shepherds, malamutes, retrievers and setters are usually less than 4 inches long.
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Those prints could go either way. A wolf has a much narrower chest than a dog, so their paw prints will line up more. Dogs are wide-chested and their prints are more spread out laterally. But big wolves have some spread.

Your pic doesn't show -- dogs meander in a #####-cross, sniffing, digging and playing. Wolves move from A to B in a straight line and only go off course if there's food or danger. They only play and meander close to their den or with their pack.

Measure the intergroup distance of the prints from the front of the furthest forward print to the rear of the furthest back print -- wolves > 26 inches usually, dogs < 26".
Hard to tell from your pic, but seems borderline...
 
Puppy dog. Not a wild canid. Foot placement is too sloppy. My Lab made the same set of tracks today. The wolf tracks he followed were twice the size and the epitome of efficiency.
 
barrett50cal said:
Those prints could go either way. A wolf has a much narrower chest than a dog, so their paw prints will line up more. Dogs are wide-chested and their prints are more spread out laterally. But big wolves have some spread.

Your pic doesn't show -- dogs meander in a #####-cross, sniffing, digging and playing. Wolves move from A to B in a straight line and only go off course if there's food or danger. They only play and meander close to their den or with their pack.

Measure the intergroup distance of the prints from the front of the furthest forward print to the rear of the furthest back print -- wolves > 26 inches usually, dogs < 26".
Hard to tell from your pic, but seems borderline...
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Big wolf would also have much larger prints ( like your splayed hand would fit in them).
 
My guess is a mid-2000 Z-71 shortbox with BFG All Terrains. Looks like he might be chasing his dog that has run off with his catch.
 
I've seen a lot of wolf tracks and a lot of dog tracks and I can't 100% tell a difference other than the fact a very large one is generally a wolf and the location where they are left gives them away. I've also seen wolves run sides of gravel roads for extended distances, play with and pi$$ on plastic bottles and other garbage, so there's no real conclusive evidence just by looking at the tracks or behaviour. In fact, they often behave very similar to a dog. Wonder why that is? :)

sjemac said:
Big wolf would also have much larger prints ( like your splayed hand would fit in them).
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Huh? No offense, but you must have very small hands. My average sized splayed hand measures just over 8.5" and I've never seen a wolf track that I could even remotely fit into. Infact, that's a pretty huge grizzly track.
 
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