BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Animal Life Tracks in the snow

I live in Flagstaff Arizona. Flagstaff is called the Northlands or the High Country and unlike Southern Arizona, we get snow--lots of it sometimes!

This morning my son and I were hiking our favorite trail, looking at the various animal tracks and having fun trying to decide who they belonged to. We were able to identify the rabbit tracks and the deer tracks and we saw some paw prints that we thought might belong to the Mountain Lion that roams the mountain (I've actually experienced a siting of the magnificant creature, brrrr).

However, a bit farther up the trail, right after we had watched the deer herd bound down the mountain, we came across some different tracks.....

There was blood on the snow along with drag marks AND some more paw prints, but these were much bigger than the ones we had seen earlier. These prints were as big as the palm of my hand! Our guess was that shortly before we came along the cat had caught one of the deer and drug it back to its lair. The drag marks were large--it wasn't a bunny.

So that's nature!

We decided the smaller ones were probably a coyote. I often see them when I'm walking. Does anyone know if a coyote print shows the toenails the same way a dog print does? This print did not have toenails.

Thanks,

Jean

Coyotes will have claw marks with them like a dogs, because they are all of the Lupis family.
Did the large prints have claw marks? If so, I'd be inclined to mention bear, with them the front feet are shaped differently from the hind feet so it may look like to 2 separate sets.
Otherwise, if there are no claw marks it very well be a cougar and yearling cub or a bobcat/lynx. I'm sure that someone like petersons is available online to check foot prints.
Good luck =]

Wendy,

That is what I thought, a coyote would show toenails because of their familial relationship to dogs. We do have bear in the area but I have never seen signs of them on this side of the mountain.

Please tell me more about Petersons. I would like to see if I could identify the smaller print. The large one, which I am sure was mountain lion (no claw marks) was roundish in shape. The smaller one, more triangular--pointed at the toes.

Jean