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Wildlife Tracks


Cedars

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These pics are from Crex Meadows.

 

My first bear prints of the season. The footprint is the left rear foot and you can see part of the front foot on the right side as the bear stepped into its own track. The second pic, I show the dime I layed on the ground next to the track for a size comparison.

 

The third pic is of a wolf track. Its a bit distorted because of the sand. The white bar alongside is 3 1/4 inches long for a size comparison.

 

It was a very windy day yesterday and its been too dry. I may bring a spray bottle along next time to try to deepen the picture.

 

The next two pictures are a bit blurry due to the distance I was trying to take the picture from, the maxed out zoom, and the fact I had to hold it above my head and guess and click because I didnt want to get out of the truck and spook the wolf. Of the three shots I managed to get off, only one captured the wolf and just barely. He is located on the left side of the pic, very near the edge. He is laying down facing north. When he got up, he walked south towards the woods, disapearing into the long grass before I could grab another shot.

 

The last pic is a 2x zoom of the first.

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Lemme guess...

 

a squirrel climbs down the tree, rughes frward for an acorn, grabs it and starts relishing it, meanwhile a vigilant eagle dive in the snow, snatches its tail & lifts off sliding the body of the helpless prey in the snow.

 

Howzzat?

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Lemme guess...

 

a squirrel climbs down the tree, rughes frward for an acorn, grabs it and starts relishing it, meanwhile a vigilant eagle dive in the snow, snatches its tail & lifts off sliding the body of the helpless prey in the snow.

 

Howzzat?

:) a pictures worth a thousand words.. I wasnt there to see what happened, infact I wasnt even the one to take the photo, but it did come with the title "dissapearing rabbit" :hihi:

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:) a pictures worth a thousand words.. I wasnt there to see what happened, infact I wasnt even the one to take the photo, but it did come with the title "dissapearing rabbit" :hihi:

 

It is a very cool pic, even though I have a different assessment of what happened :)

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that been?

 

The bird landed and walked further into the yard.

 

The main imprint is where the bird leans back to brake before landing and thats why the tail feathers and Primaries are so well defined.

 

There are 3 hops as the bird manipulates its wings and coordinates the landing. The imprint of the right wing shows 3-4 wingtip hits before the bird gets its wings folded.

 

If you draw a straight line from the tips of the wing imprints, you can see where the feet are centered and the bird is landed with wings folded at this point (and I would guess a good shake to knock of any sticking snow). Before this point, the bird was still using its tail for navigation/stablilty (the flattened snow in the center of the path). Then the steps thru the snow begin.

 

A raptor hitting an animal would have flapped its wings alot more resulting in more snow imprints, the imprint from the wrestling match would have widened the imprint at point of contact until the prey was firmly grasped to the birds content. In this pic, you see a slight imprint of the birds body on first contact.

Many raptors 'cover' their catch which should have left some type of imprint. And when taking off with a catch (or just taking off) there is usually some wingbeats that show in a snow like this, and they tend to mark on the downstroke after an intital hop to get airborn, so they are half as wide as this imprint.

 

So thats my read of the pic.

 

If I were to take a guess, I would say Raven. But thats based on the birds I know.

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A raptor hitting an animal would have flapped its wings alot more resulting in more snow imprints, the imprint from the wrestling match would have widened the imprint at point of contact until the prey was firmly grasped to the birds content. In this pic, you see a slight imprint of the birds body on first contact.

Many raptors 'cover' their catch which should have left some type of imprint. And when taking off with a catch (or just taking off) there is usually some wingbeats that show in a snow like this, and they tend to mark on the downstroke after an intital hop to get airborn, so they are half as wide as this imprint.

 

So thats my read of the pic.

 

If I were to take a guess, I would say Raven. But thats based on the birds I know.

 

 

:doh: I still think that the marks were left by a bird of prey (a raptor perhaps, I am not a zoologist anyways!)

 

On second thoght, the prey might have been a rabbit, as the footprints are seen in pairs with a considerable gap b/w them.

 

Whaddaya think?:lol:

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:doh: I still think that the marks were left by a bird of prey (a raptor perhaps, I am not a zoologist anyways!)

 

On second thoght, the prey might have been a rabbit, as the footprints are seen in pairs with a considerable gap b/w them.

 

Whaddaya think?:lol:

 

I think your version is alot of fun to imagine. :hammer: I also think its a fair first impression of a picture that we dont have any info on.

 

If you mean the tracks coming from the tree area. A rabbit is a fair guess but my money is on a squirrel.

 

Heres a pretty good pic of squirrel prints in the snow:

http://www.sover.net/~jeffgold/tracks-in-snow-03.jpg

 

Heres rabbits in shallow snow (or cold pack snow with a fresh layer). They are moving away from the camera:

http://jaywalker.ca/images/inspiring_places_images/InspiringPlacesLg/rabbit_tracks.jpg

 

Heres one going thru some deeper snow (but it could also be a jack rabbit track). This one I am not so sure on which way its traveling. I am guessing away from the camera, based on the tracks by the wire, and that it would probably hop up to the fence then leap, rather than try to clear the fence from further away:

http://www.hunewill.com/Hunewill.com_pictures_-_rabbit_tracks.jpg

 

I would guess that the fence post is probably 5-6 inches across.

 

Rabbits tend to hop, and I really dont see a hopping pattern in the tracks leading from the bird imprint. If that was one rabbit, how do you explain the dragging marks between the left prints and right prints. Two rabbits would have to be hopping side by side to do that, and a bird of prey would only grab one.

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Great thread idea Cedars! Anyone ever make any plaster casts of tracks? Here's a nice online animal-track reference >> Beartracker's Animal Tracks Den

 

I found an animal-track pic from the forest jaunt thread and I haven't ID'd it yet; what do we think? :hihi:

 

That one is pretty tough. It looks like a track over a track and the fingers/toes that are being seen are only a partial print.

 

Edit:

If I was forced to guess, I would guess raccoon because of their common status, and the other pic you posted.

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That one is pretty tough. It looks like a track over a track and the fingers/toes that are being seen are only a partial print.

 

Edit:

If I was forced to guess, I would guess raccoon because of their common status, and the other pic you posted.

 

Mmmm...my bad again for not putting my ruler down. :cup: The track is more than twice the size of the Racoon tracks however. Also unlike the multiple 'Coon tracks I photographed nearby in a large patch of mud, I found only this single impression in an area with muddy patches in vegetation. Looking through the beartracker site, the only thing in mammals that has 3 toes so close & even of the size is the Black Bear.

Animal Tracks - Black Bear (Ursus americanus)

 

Just last week a Black Bear wondered into town a few miles SW of the park and they had to chase it down & dart it. Mmmm... what do you think now? :hihi: :)

 

PS Here's a track ID & collection page from New Mexico University. >> Identifying and Preserving Wildlife Tracks

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Mmmm...my bad again for not putting my ruler down. :cup: The track is more than twice the size of the Racoon tracks however. Also unlike the multiple 'Coon tracks I photographed nearby in a large patch of mud, I found only this single impression in an area with muddy patches in vegetation. Looking through the beartracker site, the only thing in mammals that has 3 toes so close & even of the size is the Black Bear.

 

Just last week a Black Bear wondered into town a few miles SW of the park and they had to chase it down & dart it. Mmmm... what do you think now? :hihi: :)

 

OK, I adjusted the first thread post and replaced Pic #2 with a wider view of the original footprint. I had layed a dime on the ground on each side of the print (because I didnt have a quarter in my pocket). This should help with the comparison, cuz if the tracks you saw would fit a dime (easily) into each toe area, I would say Could be a bear. There is no way a dime would fit into the toe space of a raccoon print, I dont care how close to a nuke plant it frog hunts. :cup: Unless the print was totally distorted from slipping in the mud, which doesnt seem to be happening in your pic.

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OK, I adjusted the first thread post and replaced Pic #2 with a wider view of the original footprint. I had layed a dime on the ground on each side of the print (because I didnt have a quarter in my pocket). This should help with the comparison, cuz if the tracks you saw would fit a dime (easily) into each toe area, I would say Could be a bear. There is no way a dime would fit into the toe space of a raccoon print, I dont care how close to a nuke plant it frog hunts. :cup: Unless the print was totally distorted from slipping in the mud, which doesnt seem to be happening in your pic.

 

Yep: they would easily have fit a dime. I was going to posit an estimate of ~5/8" across for each toe before I saw your post. Black Bear it is then. :)

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Heres a couple of pics of tracks from a female snapping turtle. I took these today and I think they were made last night. The picture with the three quarters, you can see her shell outline as she took a break. The tail imprinted the sand also. When these guys leave the water they walk across land, not dragging their shell like most turtles do.

 

I found a spot she had been digging to lay eggs, but I am not sure she laid there. Sometimes they try several spots before they are happy.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Heres a pic I took at a fox hole. There were LOTS of different tracks in the sand, birds, bugs, fox. My guess is the first pic is a caterpiller. The second one is harder. My first impulse was spider, but I am not so sure now. There are bird tracks on the bottom left and an older fox track center left. For the 'spider' track, the one foot print seems to be dragging a bit.

 

One thing for sure, after chasing around butterflies, dragonflies, trying to get these teenie tracks in focus, I have a new respect for the people who get those Kodak moments of these critters on film, :doh:

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