Animal Trackers in my Soup

mhardy6647
mhardy6647 Posts: 35,019
edited December 2025 in The Clubhouse
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(With apologies to Shirley Temple... yes, I am old... although not that old)

I am horrible at identifying animal tracks!
We had some interesting ones this morning along the driveway. Looks, to me, like two or even three individuals. Individual what is the question!

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looks (to me) like two of 'em met up and one took a seat while they chatted...

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You can see more photos of the tracks, FWIW, at: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCEZh8
What do all y'all think?
The tracks appeared overnight.
I thought of bobcat/housecat (FWIW)
We rarely see regular ol' cats; we do see bobcats.

I couldn't find a good-old internet-based website to match tracks :( (see the "old" comment above!). Reluctantly, I tried an online AI app thingy :p, on my 'device' and it came up with... snowshoe hare with 90% confidence on two of the photos I tried. On the third photo I tried, it suggested red fox (80%) and domestic cat (65%).
It only let me do three photos before saying that'll be $4.99 a month, so I gave up at that point. :#
All y'all won't charge me $4.99 a month... right? ;)
Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions!


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Comments

  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 35,019
    N.B. "Snowshoe hare" is not utterly impossible, but I am an Occam's Razor kinda guy, and I really don't think it's all that likely. That said, they tend to be most active at night and/or in the early evening/early morning (and, mind you, the length of daylight here a few minutes shy of 9 hours this time of year). We've never seen any kind of (wild) lagomorphs around these parts in 12-ish years of living here. I was thinkin' bobcat was most likely... but red fox (and even grey foxes) are pretty common in the area.
    Plenty of domestic cats around, of course, but we hardly ever see one roaming through our yard.

    Oh. The other, very obvious tracks in some of the images are from a 2016 Honda CR-V EX-L. Pretty sure of that ID. ;)

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  • Viking64
    Viking64 Posts: 7,556
    My guess would be bobcat as well. And maybe one or two other animals. I think the tracks aren't so defined because of the powdery characteristics of the snow. In other words, after the imprint is made, a little dusting of powder causes the track to be "blurry."

    I lived on a mountain a while back and there were bobcats around. Sometimes they left the "classic" cat print and other times they left something very similar to what you've got there.

    I just tried to e-mail one of the friendlier ones (robertfeline@hotmail.com) and soon after I got a notification that said it couldn't be delivered.
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  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,915
    Coyote.
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre Upgraded with Mundorf Supremes
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)

    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
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  • invalid
    invalid Posts: 1,456
    Jackalope
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  • Viking64
    Viking64 Posts: 7,556
    Hodag
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 35,019
    too small for a coyote, methinks.
    I mean... maybe a youngster...?

    15481991510_d00508b210_b.jpg
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  • Osarion
    Osarion Posts: 192
    Time to set up a trail cam and you can share the clips with us!
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 35,019
    Yeah... I do have a trail cam, and I think I (still) might put it out there tonight.
    The issue with it is: an ornery downy woodpecker pecked a hole in the diffuser in front of the IR sensor a while back, so it's 1) kind of not too weatherproof and 2) might not even work.. :blush:
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  • Willow
    Willow Posts: 11,231
    lightman1 ?
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  • skipshot12
    skipshot12 Posts: 1,972
    edited December 2025
    Damn picker woods.
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  • billbillw
    billbillw Posts: 7,543
    From my Scouting days, I'd say those are most definitely some type of feline tracks. Definitely not a hare/rabbit or coyote.
    Bobcat or feral cat are probably good bets.
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  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,915
    Ugh. For all you city slickers...Those are coyote tracks. Cat prints are round with no claw impressions. It's possible that it's dog prints but it being more than one animal and they were probably done at night when coyotes are out to hunt I'm 99% sure they are Wiley and kin.
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre Upgraded with Mundorf Supremes
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)

    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 27,051
    edited December 2025
    Bobcats are usually pretty solitary. On the other hand Foxes like company.
    By the way I do not spy any clear nail impressions.
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  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 13,095
    I thought this was going to be a thread about internet tracking cookies.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 35,019
    It could be... see what kind of ads you start to get after looking at it and posting to it...
    B)
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