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Footprints (I Presume?)

tomxxy2000

Junior Acolyte
Joined
Jul 27, 2010
Messages
53
Apologies firstly for not being on here in absolutely ages and if this post is in the wrong thread... I was trying to find minor strangeness, that probably gives you an idea of my extended absence.
Anyway... I was casually browsing through my iCloud archive and came across a photo which I myself took in 2010 (IMMSMC). At the time, I just thought it was a bit odd but it never really invaded my conscience too much. There had been a heavy snowfall and I was outside my then house. I genuinely can't remember if it was very early in the morning or at night which is slightly bugging me now but I do remember being the only person around. At the time I was living in a rented Edwardian style semi detached house on an unassuming suburban street. There's a very narrow lane at the side of the house leading to the garden. In the snow, on the pathway was a set of what looked like tiny footprints. All perfectly formed in the snow in a very purposeful and linear fashion. I was more intrigued and bewildered at the time and my only intention was getting a photo of it without disrupting the surrounding area. They started at the pavement and went up toward the gate in the direction of the house. There could well be a rational explanation for it and I kind of hope there is but I just couldn't see how it could have ever been hoaxed or put there by a person.. do some creatures walk in a singular fashion?
Thanks in advance
 
Welcome back ...

Is there any chance you can post the photo (or a scan of the photo)?
 
Apologies firstly for not being on here in absolutely ages and if this post is in the wrong thread... I was trying to find minor strangeness, that probably gives you an idea of my extended absence.
Anyway... I was casually browsing through my iCloud archive and came across a photo which I myself took in 2010 (IMMSMC). At the time, I just thought it was a bit odd but it never really invaded my conscience too much. There had been a heavy snowfall and I was outside my then house. I genuinely can't remember if it was very early in the morning or at night which is slightly bugging me now but I do remember being the only person around. At the time I was living in a rented Edwardian style semi detached house on an unassuming suburban street. There's a very narrow lane at the side of the house leading to the garden. In the snow, on the pathway was a set of what looked like tiny footprints. All perfectly formed in the snow in a very purposeful and linear fashion. I was more intrigued and bewildered at the time and my only intention was getting a photo of it without disrupting the surrounding area. They started at the pavement and went up toward the gate in the direction of the house. There could well be a rational explanation for it and I kind of hope there is but I just couldn't see how it could have ever been hoaxed or put there by a person.. do some creatures walk in a singular fashion?
Thanks in advance
Were they footprints from a tiny pair of shoes or unshod feet?
Might they be left by a bird?
 
I thought you might never ask
FB_IMG_1591219401245.jpg
 
It's a creature with only one foot.
 
The neat spacing and relative straight-line arrangement makes me think those are fox tracks. I don't know of any other small mammal that typically leaves such a straight line of single tracks in the snow.
 
Its very neat.

Would there be foxes in the area?

With questions like this, its a start to ask what might credibly be found in the environment
 
(And, if it was a biped; has a very long stride for foot size...)
 
Cheers folks.. I think I just needed opinions for assurance. It certainly didn't spook me at the time. I didn't want to venture up there to follow it as I felt my footprints would have been tantamount to vandalism.
 
Whilst we're here to discuss unknown footprints, let me share these that I took two weekends ago ( I don't wish to hijack the thread @tomxxy2000 started, so feel free to move or delete).
Saturday, two weeks ago, my wife, son my in laws and one of the women who works for us were having a major clean up of our smaller store before re-opening after the Covid-19 closures.
We have a garbage skip at the rear of the store which is actually an old house (the town's original bakery, complete with it's own backyard).
We had collected garbage bags full of rubbish and so my son and I grabbed a few and went for our first trip to the garbage skip which is roadside at the end of the yard.
As we were walking towards towards the bin, we noticed a number of unusual footprints in the grass. We gad recent light rain and the soil was damp. The yard is open to a road at the rear and not fenced so there is access to anyone or anything. We occasionally get kangaroos in the yard to eat the grass.
However, I don't think these prints are kangaroos, though I'm happy to be corrected. There were a few of them about, perhaps 10 in all, more of the smaller ones.
I didn't think of taking the pictures with anything to show a size comparison.

Footprint 1 - I wear a size 10 show and it was considerably larger than my foot by an a few cm on each side.
footprint1.jpg


Footprint 2 - More dog like, however the yellowish piece of grass you see extending from the left side of the indentation would have been at least 10 cm long, if not a little larger.
footprint2.jpg


We joke around town that since the bushfires last summer, the local Yowies in the National Park (which was burnt out) must be hungry. Perhaps they are.
 
I can't obtain a clear enough impression of those tracks' shape to offer an opinion. :dunno:
 
The neat spacing and relative straight-line arrangement makes me think those are fox tracks. I don't know of any other small mammal that typically leaves such a straight line of single tracks in the snow.
Yes - you would think it is a fox. Surprising that the tracks don't appear more staggered, (presumably due to the angle of the shot), or it's just a very neat fox!
 
Whilst we're here to discuss unknown footprints, let me share these that I took two weekends ago ( I don't wish to hijack the thread @tomxxy2000 started, so feel free to move or delete).
Saturday, two weeks ago, my wife, son my in laws and one of the women who works for us were having a major clean up of our smaller store before re-opening after the Covid-19 closures.
We have a garbage skip at the rear of the store which is actually an old house (the town's original bakery, complete with it's own backyard).
We had collected garbage bags full of rubbish and so my son and I grabbed a few and went for our first trip to the garbage skip which is roadside at the end of the yard.
As we were walking towards towards the bin, we noticed a number of unusual footprints in the grass. We gad recent light rain and the soil was damp. The yard is open to a road at the rear and not fenced so there is access to anyone or anything. We occasionally get kangaroos in the yard to eat the grass.
However, I don't think these prints are kangaroos, though I'm happy to be corrected. There were a few of them about, perhaps 10 in all, more of the smaller ones.
I didn't think of taking the pictures with anything to show a size comparison.

Footprint 1 - I wear a size 10 show and it was considerably larger than my foot by an a few cm on each side.
View attachment 26862

Footprint 2 - More dog like, however the yellowish piece of grass you see extending from the left side of the indentation would have been at least 10 cm long, if not a little larger.
View attachment 26863

We joke around town that since the bushfires last summer, the local Yowies in the National Park (which was burnt out) must be hungry. Perhaps they are.
Wow.... They look pretty intimidating for sure..
 
Yes - you would think it is a fox. Surprising that the tracks don't appear more staggered, (presumably due to the angle of the shot), or it's just a very neat fox!
Exactly... It must be a very neat fox because they are so exact and incredibly straight... I'm 5 11" and I was facing it fairly straight and did a point and shoot..
 
The neat spacing and relative straight-line arrangement makes me think those are fox tracks. I don't know of any other small mammal that typically leaves such a straight line of single tracks in the snow.

Yes. Foxes leave distinctly different types of track in hard and soft ground. In soft snow the rear and front foot on each side fall at precisely the same point.

In fact - hold on...runs off to bookshelf...has a dig around...runs back...

To quote from Bang and Dahlstrom's classic, Animal Tracks and Signs:

In snow or on soft ground, however, a fox always holds its body straight, facing the direction in which it is moving, and places each hind-foot exactly in the track made by the fore-foot of the same side


Re Lord Lucan's post: It's hard to tell with any confidence, but I wonder if what you have there might actually be a dog print, with the area that looks like the heel/sole shape actually being damage caused by the animal backward scratching after a toilet break.
 
Reminds me of the stories told of the Jersey Devil's footprints back in 1909. Small round prints in a straight line.
 
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