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One-Legged Animal Tracks (Again)

tomxxy2000

tomxxy2000

Junior Acolyte
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Jul 27, 2010
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I know that Dingo667 posted a story that was featured in the Mail and the Sun back in the beginning of 09 regarding strange cloven animal tracks found in the snow in Devon but this has prompted me to post this and I can't believe that I nearly forgot about it!!

Nothing other than one evening when I came out of the house and was about to get into my car I looked at the path that leads up to my garden gate at the side of my house and did a double take, I say a double take as I couldn't get my head round how anything could have walked in such a straight and linear fashion without anything else around it! Bizarrely at the time (and despite my interest in the strange and unusual) I didn't really look to see where they stopped or investigate. I guess I wanted to just keep them intact. Anyway enough babble:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58684547@N07/5381865412/
 
Looks a bit fox-like? Maybe one running?
 
Very regular spacing. Weird indeed.
 
Sorry to disappoint, but I think it's just a domestic cat trail. The following is taken from Bang and Dahlstrom's classic Animal Tracks and Signs:

When trotting the hind-foot and fore-foot tracks register and the stride is increased to 35-40 cm. The straddle is now so small that the tracks lie almost on a straight line.
Click to expand...

It should also be pointed out that if it is a trotting cat trail then what appears to be a single paw print is in fact two, as the hind-foot registers in the fore-foot track.

A trotting fox leaves a similar trail, although with a slightly wider straddle - and although the fore and hind feet land - like the cat - at the same point, they are slightly offset.

Another possible explanation for some apparently 'one-legged' trails is actually the body print (rather than the footprint) of mice, which have a tendency to leap when negotiating snow.
 
Pogo stick? Rubbish! Domestic cat? Give me a break!...it's clearly a domestic cat on a pogo stick.
 
Sorry to disappoint, but I think it's just a domestic cat trail.
Click to expand...

I was going to say that too, when it snowed here in November I came out of the house one day to see a single footprint track down my path, which baffled me for a moment until I realised they were cat paw prints that led from my next door neighbour's door, under the fence and down my path, and you could see in places where the track turned back to looking like what you'd expect the track of a cat to look like.

It's quite odd though.
 
To be fair after giving it some thought that it was a cat (and perhaps it is) but they started almost out of nowhere, if the cat (I have two and there are lots in my area) had jumped off a fence and then proceed along the landing imprint might have looked different. There probably is a rational explaination as I never jump straight to the "its a mystery" scenario and try to figure things out rationally however they do still look odd! I like the mouse idea and certainly the pogoing animal! Lol-age for that one :D :D :D
 
Just saw this picture from Finland on Reddit. No explanation was given (though I know the Nordic people & their Scandinavian cousins can get a little wild at times).

finland.png
 
Lord Lucan said:
Just saw this picture from Finland on Reddit. No explanation was given (though I know the Nordic people & their Scandinavian cousins can get a little wild at times)...
Click to expand...

It's a mountain hare track - or possibly a brown hare.

In deeper snow a hare might travel by a sequence of short jumps from a sitting position. The long section is the longer hind feet, which are placed close together when performing this manoeuvre.
 
Spookdaddy said:
In deeper snow a hare might travel by a sequence of short jumps from a sitting position. The long section is the longer hind feet, which are placed close together when performing this manoeuvre.
Click to expand...
I believe it is the other way round. The front feet are placed close together causing the single-looking print and the hind legs swing past them and are planted side by side in front of the single print.
 
Min Bannister said:
I believe it is the other way round. The front feet are placed close together causing the single-looking print and the hind legs swing past them and are planted side by side in front of the single print.
Click to expand...

Yes, you're right - got my fore and hind the wrong way round. (Have to be careful with that - can cause severe embarrassment in certain situations.)
 
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Min Bannister said:
I believe it is the other way round. The front feet are placed close together causing the single-looking print and the hind legs swing past them and are planted side by side in front of the single print.
Click to expand...

Like this:

20220123_100821.jpg


From Bang and Dahlstrom's classic, Animal Tracks and Signs, again.

That's for normal conditions - I think the positioning is slightly different in snow, especially deeper snow - as the animal spreads its toes wider and sometimes settles or pauses for longer between leaps.
 
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