Tracks Describe the Animal...

[TRW]

That snow must be soft as butter to leave drag marks i have seen cats ran to death and not even leave a track that un catty that thing needs to be caught in a bad way even if it cant climb i think you will be suprised to see that its not no bobcat

[bency]

Thats just a big ol' Tom bobbie thats well in doubt...you better catch that one next time

[david]

that cat passed thru here 3 years ago - - i walked behind dog a few miles - dog could only follow it ---
never jumped it -

[quote="NolteWe have a fairly low cat density here. You can check all day in all the crossings and not cut a single cat track. You can usually cut multiple t-wolves, coyotes, grey & red fox, fisher and other small critters, so we get to compare tracks agains all sorts of junk.

With that in mind, I'm saying it is a 35.5 tom bobcat. If the pics were better I cold narrow it down another 1/4 lb. [/quote]

B N Trees got to look down into that track, we dont have the luxury of that. His old reliable dog says "cat". Pete and Nolte say " I seen that big boy before". And that is good enough for me. But I got a question for you guys.

I once saw a Canadian Lynx track. The thing that made me pretty sure it was a lynx track was because I had a bobcat track about the same age and size very near by. They looked different, and with out the comparison, I would have just written it off to weird snow conditions. But the difference was the "crater" they left. The crater of the bobcat was clean and about the size of a line loosely drawn around all the points of the track. The crater of the lynx was bigger than what those pads should have left, and it was not clean, but "fuzzy" around the edges because of their "snowshoes" made of hair.

What threw me when I looked at the first picture that B n trees posted was the size of the hole that cat was leaving, bigger than the hole should be for the size of the pads and toes, and at how messy those drag marks look. The snow seems like it would take a very clean impression of those pads, yet everything else looks messy. With a bobcat, I am always thinking "clean, and round" even the drag marks are usually "clean and round". Obviously, snow conditions are going to play around with the clean and round rule, and we need another bobcat track made the same day and laid next to this one in the picture. But It sure has me wishing we had a lynx expert around here to say yea or nay.

[david]

?

look at this picture again...

is he dragging his toes or dragging his snowshoes?

I would sure like to know.

B N Trees, next time brother we want a picture of this critter in a tree

[high desert hounds]

I cant tell the size of that track but if it is a touch smaller than a bob it looks like a badger to me. pigion toed, stepping in its own track, dragging its feet. all signs point toward Badger in this country. However they don't go far without doing some digging. sure don't look like a bob to me. go get it caught up and let us know.

[david]

High desert, I thought the same thing, because I got fooled by badger early in my career. My dogs sure looked at me funny when I was trying to get them to run that cat. Then my buddy sure looked at me funny when that cat kept leaving fresh dug dirt behind as we were trying to dig him out of that hole. It is amazing how that whole weasle family wants to imitate bobcats. I have had a freind swear a singular otter track was a bobcat, until I showed him why there were these slide marks in the snow. Even a weasle might make you slow down because of the little holes they leave in their hopping. They are using all four feet to try and immitate a single bob cat track. I have always wanted to see a wolverine track to see how bad they want to be a bobcat.

But beleive me, I have been searching those pictures for badger, and I cant find him. It is because they have those huge long claws on the front feet. They are so long they do not even show up in the outline of the track. But they will be seen pushed into the snow at the front of the track, and I can not see them. And with that much drag, we should be seeing some claw.
I am with you though, but I just cant find him there.

[Clarka57]

Have seen a few cat tracks that didn't follow the typical line for long periods. I was first fooled by a river otter in real light snow, so I was a nay sayer when I saw tracks similar to that. But after just about a fist fight with my brother and my friend I turned loose on a set about like that, and we treed a bobcat and I ate crow. It is hard to tell from a picture and to me a non expert its sometimes hard to tell in person especially when you want to run something. I can can make a track out of a lot of things, but when the dogs turn around and look at me crazy I take their word for it. My 2 cents anyways

[david]

, but when the dogs turn around and look at me crazy I take their word for it. My 2 cents anyways

That is the other reason I decided no on the badger. That dog aint turning around with the "are you crazy boss?" look on her face. Beleive me, I know that look.

[horshur]

I don't have any quality pics of Canadian lynx track but these are the real deal




sorry they are not very good quality.

[NorWester]

If the original tracks are lynx one would think there must be plenty of snowshoe hare in the area?

Haven't seen too many bobcat tracks, but come across the odd lynx track. Mind you it could be an otter for all I know

[david]

Mind you it could be an otter for all I know

rofl

[Badge215]

I am agreeing with fox hunter

Looks to me the cat had his mouth full of something more then ten pounds
and thats what made the drag marks.

[Todd Davis]

if it was a fisher, should have five toes

[Clarka57]

"Haven't seen too many bobcat tracks, but come across the odd lynx track. Mind you it could be an otter for all I know " Ya I know sounds pretty stupid, and looking back find it funny, but it was my first year out running dogs and I knew they weren't quite right but I gave them a go and that is what I found. The tracks here don't look like those and I will be danged they are not along a river.

[B-N-Trees]

All right ya'll, all I wanted to know form this post was what your opinion of a bobcat that drug its feet. I was not trying to get the tracks identified because they are BOBCAT tracks, just a little different than most. But then again maybe not because here are some more from today in less than a one inch snow. This is another BOBCAT a good 50 miles from the one fooled with earlier in the week. They look identical to the ones I posted earlier, even the same pattern, same shuffle marks in the snow. This time my hounds smoked this track and bayed the cat in the rocks. Before I could get to them it got over the bluff and headed out.

I took close ups in case someone wants to argue they're martin, wolverine, porcupines or something


Notice the drag marks


Here is the country I ran the bobcat in.