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I just read an ad for a person who claims he can tell the difference between toms and female lions just by looking at their tracks. He also says he can tell how much they weigh. Can this really be done? I know you can tell size, mostly by stride, but to tell weight? (I don't think so, maybe best guess from past experience) but not accurately. IMO. Can you really tell the sex of a lion from it's track?

If you run enough of them you get pretty good at guessing. As far as weight that might be a little tricky I have seen some fat girls that had pretty small feet. LOL!

Ha that was pretty funny mike.. i agree with him after running alot of lions you get pretty good at being able to tell the tracks.

Mike the fat chicks you got to figure how far they marrowed up in the groung,but on frozen ground you in trouble. I bet Ole Ike has an answer.

I have never lion hunted so have no clue. I did watch a show once recently where they were measuring the stride. Form this they determined male or female. Is there any truth to this, or something just for the camera???

Steve White wrote:I have never lion hunted so have no clue. I did watch a show once recently where they were measuring the stride. Form this they determined male or female. Is there any truth to this, or something just for the camera???

Just for the camera. Length of stride is typically the speed they are traveling. Long stride and a straight line is a traveling cat and is usually hard to catch up with when turning on a old track. Short strides means walking slower, dragging feet means a tired cat typically short races.

dhostetler wrote:

Steve White wrote:I have never lion hunted so have no clue. I did watch a show once recently where they were measuring the stride. Form this they determined male or female. Is there any truth to this, or something just for the camera???

Just for the camera. Length of stride is typically the speed they are traveling. Long stride and a straight line is a traveling cat and is usually hard to catch up with when turning on a old track. Short strides means walking slower, dragging feet means a tired cat typically short races.

All the tracks I recall seeing from that show. Looked like walking tracks. Not tired walking, just walking.

Toms usually have bigger rounder toes. females have pointyer toes...a huge old tom is easy to tell, just from the size......but tellin a young, 2 or 3 year old tom from an older adult female can leave you with a wrong guess sometimes. iv'e guessed wrong both ways

308 winchester sitting in that track.....

Lots of good comments and informati0n on this post, and I'll agree that large tom tracks are found making both short and long strides, so the length of the stride is not always proof positive. I've ran down huge tracks that belonged to a four or five year old tom that only scored 14 plus inches, and old toms that didn't look any larger that went up around 15 or bettter. The rounded, fat toes are a good indicator as well as the size of his back pad on his front feet; another good sign is how often and how deep of scratches that tom is making. But like the tracks, the ground can be more frozen or other things going on that may well change the behavior of that tom as well.

I usually try to match the track to what I see in the tree and go from there, look at the ears, the forehead, whether that old tom has a rope tail, get a look at his teeth if possible and then put all that information together and make a decision on whether to bust a cap. In the end, a guy just has to ground check lots of those large toads to see what he really is for size. I learned years ago that any man who figured he could put a score on a tom lion from the track or from under the tree was wrong as many times as he was right...........

ike

ike

hoshur, perfect example of a tired cougar probably didn't have cold trail that one far. A perfectly round front toes on a cougar in our area will be a 160+ cougar, I have yet to figure out the difference between sow and tom tracks. The tracks you posted I would estimate a 100lb cougar but I don't have a clue what sex. Be interesting to see what the others on here would call that track. Sow cougars hardly ever go over 110 lb. usually 85 lb. to 100 lb. So I imagine if you call all cougar tracks between 85 to 100 lb. sows you will be right 80% of the time.

Mike Leonard wrote: I have seen some fat girls that had pretty small feet. LOL!

Sounds like a prom date gone bad

I'll play, the photo of the track is definately a tom around here, don't have any 308's layin around but I would think the toes are at least as big as your thumb or probably bigger, a mature tom. far as weight, a 308 damn near fitting inside the pad lenghtways makes me wanna say its a pretty big cat, really hard to tell from a pic though. 140-150lbs??????

35 remington 2 1/2 inches Female with kits


young Tom 308 Winchester 3 inches(shitty pic)

Not sure who said that they could guess the weight of a lion by the size of a track but if they could, they could probably make some good money at a county fair or walmart.

sourdough