Quote:
Fisher?
I wondered about fisher myself though the tracks seemed too small. I saw a fisher once in the wild. I checked fisher tracks on the internet since you suggested them. There is an excellent sample of several animal tracks on the Friends of Loomis Forest site. They showed several fisher gaits, but none were evenly paired, and the tracks were too big and the stride too long for what I saw.
However, they had some tracks of a hare on crusted snow with less than 1/4 inch of depth to the tracking surface, virtually identical to the surface that I saw these tracks on. I am beginning to think that I saw the tracks of a snowshoe hare who was moving at exactly the right speed on a hard surface that so that only his toes and pad showed rather than the usual shank of his hind foot, and with no overshoot of hind feet past front. He kept up this perfect gait for the 40 feet of level ground that I looked at, making an odd looking short stride, paired foot track with perfect print of pads and toes, which is unusual for a hare track. At least I never saw one that tidy before.
I think it was a snowshoe hare after all. Thanks. The nudge to check fisher tracks led to what I think is the solution.
Fisher?
I wondered about fisher myself though the tracks seemed too small. I saw a fisher once in the wild. I checked fisher tracks on the internet since you suggested them. There is an excellent sample of several animal tracks on the Friends of Loomis Forest site. They showed several fisher gaits, but none were evenly paired, and the tracks were too big and the stride too long for what I saw.
However, they had some tracks of a hare on crusted snow with less than 1/4 inch of depth to the tracking surface, virtually identical to the surface that I saw these tracks on. I am beginning to think that I saw the tracks of a snowshoe hare who was moving at exactly the right speed on a hard surface that so that only his toes and pad showed rather than the usual shank of his hind foot, and with no overshoot of hind feet past front. He kept up this perfect gait for the 40 feet of level ground that I looked at, making an odd looking short stride, paired foot track with perfect print of pads and toes, which is unusual for a hare track. At least I never saw one that tidy before.
I think it was a snowshoe hare after all. Thanks. The nudge to check fisher tracks led to what I think is the solution.
