WvYotehunter65
New member
Nice bobcat
Photo: Are these cougar tracks?
- Thread starter longhairlover
- Start date
predyotevarmint
New member
Cant make the X in them.
longhairlover
New member
I appreciate all the replies. I didn't have the forum set up to email me if I got replies, and I was all disappointed and thought that nobody had answered me yet, until I came back here and saw two pages of replies.
I analyzed the tracks using some field guides that show you how to identify cat tracks. You can draw various lines across the images and show that the toes are not lined up equally, or that the two outer toes are pointing inward at a particular angle, or that the heel pad is squared off at the top near the toes, and most of my pictures seem to meet the criteria (in my opinion - at least, the pictures that I suspect are cats, and not the other pictures that I'm sure come from other animals).
As for the toenails, from what I've read, I think it's a usually/sometimes kind of thing, rather than an always/never kind of thing. You can sometimes see cat toenails in the right situation. Maybe the snow was deep enough to press against the front of the foot. In a lot of the photos, the cat was going downhill and sliding on the ice a bit, which would push the front of the foot into the snow, so that even if the claws were sheathed, they might leave an impression anyway. Or the poor cat was digging its claws in to stop sliding.
There are indeed lots of dogs that could have walked on that trail. It's a busy, popular trail (which makes it all the scarier to imagine that a big cat was there during the night), and dozens of people walk on it every day when the weather is good, and many bring dogs.
I've actually decided in my own mind that they are a cat, but I will never be 100% certain until I see the cat itself face to face, and I probably would not be very happy about it if that happened, so I will tolerate having a little bit of uncertainty. Enough people in various forums have told me about experiences where they showed things to the game commission and the game commission lied to them, that I believe they're probably lying to me too.
How much does a trail camera cost? Thousands of dollars, or cheaper?
I analyzed the tracks using some field guides that show you how to identify cat tracks. You can draw various lines across the images and show that the toes are not lined up equally, or that the two outer toes are pointing inward at a particular angle, or that the heel pad is squared off at the top near the toes, and most of my pictures seem to meet the criteria (in my opinion - at least, the pictures that I suspect are cats, and not the other pictures that I'm sure come from other animals).
As for the toenails, from what I've read, I think it's a usually/sometimes kind of thing, rather than an always/never kind of thing. You can sometimes see cat toenails in the right situation. Maybe the snow was deep enough to press against the front of the foot. In a lot of the photos, the cat was going downhill and sliding on the ice a bit, which would push the front of the foot into the snow, so that even if the claws were sheathed, they might leave an impression anyway. Or the poor cat was digging its claws in to stop sliding.
There are indeed lots of dogs that could have walked on that trail. It's a busy, popular trail (which makes it all the scarier to imagine that a big cat was there during the night), and dozens of people walk on it every day when the weather is good, and many bring dogs.
I've actually decided in my own mind that they are a cat, but I will never be 100% certain until I see the cat itself face to face, and I probably would not be very happy about it if that happened, so I will tolerate having a little bit of uncertainty. Enough people in various forums have told me about experiences where they showed things to the game commission and the game commission lied to them, that I believe they're probably lying to me too.
How much does a trail camera cost? Thousands of dollars, or cheaper?
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furtracker
New member
Definitely a large K9. First give away is the claw marks and how the far right claw mark looks like it curves inward. You will see this with just about every large dog track. Second is the negative space between the pad and the toes. If you notice in the mountain lion track pic there is very little to no negative space between the pad and toes.
Here is a Lab track.
http://www.bear-tracker.com/dog.html
Here is a Lab track.
http://www.bear-tracker.com/dog.html
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longhairlover
New member
Yes and by the way the first track, the big one in the mud, wasn't one of my photos. I got it off the net.
Field Medic
New member
Longhair lover. I e mailed you pics of my tracks.. Feel free to post on PM forum !!
NewYorkHunter13642
New member
You can pick up a pretty good trail cam for 200 or less
WV Stud
New member
Not sure if many of you are familiar with the show that use to come on,on the history channel..The first part of this video is from WV.
I remember watching this when it aired,about 3-4 years ago the g/f and I was getting pizza and I struck a conversion with this guy about hunting as it was deer season..He just asked me out of the blue if I believed in "Mountain Lions" in WV and I said yea,and he also was asking if I seen this of episode monster quest of course I did I told him.
He said what did you think,I told him that I believed all of it etc and he told me who he was...Turned out it was the guy that filmed this in Pendleton county WV which is the next county over from me.After he told me who he was he said that the DNR had been called in more then once and they kept giving him the run around.Said one time they was called when a farmer close to him was loosing goats,they ended up finding a goat carcass in a tree up 30 feet in a tree
Thought it was pretty cool getting to talk to him and not knowing who he was at first.He said that they called him a lair and that the next time he seen it they would be the lair's because he would put it down.
I remember watching this when it aired,about 3-4 years ago the g/f and I was getting pizza and I struck a conversion with this guy about hunting as it was deer season..He just asked me out of the blue if I believed in "Mountain Lions" in WV and I said yea,and he also was asking if I seen this of episode monster quest of course I did I told him.
He said what did you think,I told him that I believed all of it etc and he told me who he was...Turned out it was the guy that filmed this in Pendleton county WV which is the next county over from me.After he told me who he was he said that the DNR had been called in more then once and they kept giving him the run around.Said one time they was called when a farmer close to him was loosing goats,they ended up finding a goat carcass in a tree up 30 feet in a tree
Thought it was pretty cool getting to talk to him and not knowing who he was at first.He said that they called him a lair and that the next time he seen it they would be the lair's because he would put it down.
Field Medic
New member
WV Stud
Awesome video!! Thanks for taking the time to post it!! Interesting at marker 5:14 there is footage of a mountain lion walking.. It looks as if his nails maybe extended during contact to the ground?? If this is as it looks then that may throw my theory out of the water??? This looks to be grass or dry footing in the video.. I don't know if they would extend their nails in mud, like the track I have.. Interesting!!! Great post!! WV Stud!!!
Awesome video!! Thanks for taking the time to post it!! Interesting at marker 5:14 there is footage of a mountain lion walking.. It looks as if his nails maybe extended during contact to the ground?? If this is as it looks then that may throw my theory out of the water??? This looks to be grass or dry footing in the video.. I don't know if they would extend their nails in mud, like the track I have.. Interesting!!! Great post!! WV Stud!!!
trapwv
New member
I agree the tracks in the snow are a large canine track. The track in the mud, is clearly cat. You can tell the difference in the shape of the toes and the track. Also, if a cat did leave claw marks for some reason, they would be narrow and pointed. The claw marks in the snow track are quite thick and short. My opinion, large dog.