help me identify these footprints

5

5.45

BANNED
BANNED
BANNED
Rating - 100%
39   0   1
Location
Earth
stumbled upon these yesterday

mixed forest, ~1 km to nearest houses, a small stream nearby

7RSP7Sr.jpg
 
Those look like dog - canine - toe nails are extended - a cat would be retracted, I think. Fox, coyote, wolf, neighbour's dog - take your pick - hard to guesstimate size from your picture - big coyote vs. small wolf - not sure I would know how to tell difference - except if travelling alone, not likely coyote or wolf - especially this time of year ...
 
There's a human boot print for scale.
I thought these would be too large for a dog, and the fingertips look slightly different.
 
Coyote or dog. Looks too big for fox, unless you have small feet. Being in New Brunswick not very likely its wolf.
 
We have owned two dogs - a runty 30 pound female Red Heeler and 65 pound female English Bulldog - taught me that I know "sweet nothing" about reading dog tracks in the snow ... And we have foxes, coyotes and wolves passing through the yard, so altogether a bit confusing to an old guy like me ... My brother showed me a set of grey wolf tracks in Western Alberta - would have sworn a single animal crossed the trail there - must have split into 5 or 6 animals a few yards into the bush - them buggers can walk foot print-in-foot print when they feel the need to ..
 
Coyote.

The rear footprints are very close to the front prints (A coyote almost places his rear feet in the front tracks) and the toe pads are more "tear drop" shaped than the oval toe pads of a dog.
 
Ok, thanks!
I saw some blood spots as if it caught a small animal, and where it peed its urine was brown, same colour as in moderately dehydrated human.
No dynamite sticks were spotted nearby.
 
Looks like everyday run of the mill large dog tracks to me.
I have them all over my yard from our dog and lots of fox tracks and a few sets of coyote tracks in the front. Coyotes don't weigh enough that their toes spread whereas a wolf or large breed dog does.
If there's no wolves there and there is no scat around to compare..... I'd say it's just dog tracks.
 
45ACPKING said:
Looks like everyday run of the mill large dog tracks to me.
I have them all over my yard from our dog and lots of fox tracks and a few sets of coyote tracks in the front. Coyotes don't weigh enough that their toes spread whereas a wolf or large breed dog does.
If there's no wolves there and there is no scat around to compare..... I'd say it's just dog tracks.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Dog paws 'splay out' in soft snow and mud making them quite large. Dog prints are usually (well, sometimes) identifiable when you see human prints nearby. The reverse is a sure sign it's a coyote.
 
Dog.

Coyote tracks are generally more of an oval shape with only the two front nails showing. Once in a while you'll find track from a big coyote that's splayed a bit more than usual but it's usually nowhere near as round as a dog track.

Fox is basically the same oval with two front nails as a coyote but much smaller and much closer together in stride.

95% chance it's a dog. 5% chance it's a giant 'yote.

Another way to tell is to look at the lateral displacement of the stride. Coyote tracks are basically a straight line.
 
I would say it is a dog, toe nails to big, toe pads to big and track not oval eggs shaped. That being said in our area we have found some yote tracks we have dogged by tracking that we killed that are not the norm. I have tracked big footed ones that walk doggie which is common in mating season. I have pictures if I can find but after years of dogging l don't pay much attention to difference in tracks and after years of tracking we never found a dog making the tracks being followed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom