Snow Sliders

[Human_84]

Ok after some digging I found some pictures I'd seen a month or so back. Theres no posts on it here hence this post I'm making. This is still something unexplained and not proven to be made by an animal; because well, we dont know where the tracks come from!!! Each quote is the photographer's and each quote I'm posting BEFORe the associated picture....

Here is a creature from western Wisconsin that went for a slide in the snow. This and the other pictures were taken this past February when we had a new snowfall. Now I know that certain animals like foxes and weasels will occasionally slide in the snow, no problems there. The intriguing aspect of this animal is that the only way it moved was by sliding. Either that or it was 14 feet long and was dragging it's belly, because the slide marks are between footprints. I shall explain each pic as I go, and on this one you can see that when it slid it actually made slight turns as it went. All this was on flat ground, more or less.

http://www.cryptozoology.com/gallery/co ... 226951.jpg

Otter Slide very similar to the unsolved "Slider" pictures

http://www.cryptozoology.com/gallery/co ... 367121.jpg

Human_84: If it was an animal then it definetly scratched its belly up along these rocks.

http://www.cryptozoology.com/gallery/co ... 226344.jpg

This is one of the entire slide marks from start to finish, and you can see my footprints along side as a measuring device. I wear a size 12 shoe, which conservatively makes this slide 14 feet in length. All of the slides of this creature were very long, even over rough terrain, and that alone boggles my mind. How rough was the terrain?? Well, my next pic shows what i am talking about.

http://www.cryptozoology.com/gallery/co ... 225997.jpg

This last picture gives you a good idea of a typical nice long slide. It turns a bit right at the end and then continues down into a gulley. I followed these tracks for a mile or more, and never once did this animal revert to walking or running on it's regular feet, sliding everywhere it went until I tracked it into some hawthorn canes where it slid underneath them and I did not wish to follow. The width was about 9 inches and the actual tracks looked like fox tracks but had no claws. I live literally in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin, and you can walk into our valley for miles without ever seeing any other settlement or person. In other words, we are pretty remote. Needless to say, if anyone has an idea, please let me know.

http://www.cryptozoology.com/gallery/co ... 225634.jpg

edited by Quixote, turned xl images into links

 

[Dessie32]

Rough guess an otter.

 

[Yithian]

Are there no close up pictures of the tracks we can see in picture 2?

 

[Spookdaddy]

Rough guess an otter.

I'd agree with Dessie - almost definitely otters.

The following is a quote from Bang and Dahlstrom's guide to European wildlife tracks -

An attractive and not uncommon track occurs in the form of long, broad furrows which are produced when an otter slides down a snowy slope on its belly. When playing they often use suitable slopes as toboggan runs

I'm quoting from the book rather than the net so I can't show you the accompanying photograph which looks exactly like those in Human 84's post.

Anyone who has ever seen otters in the wild, or at London Zoo for that matter, will tell you that they never walk if there is something nearby they can slide down - one of the reasons I would like to be reincarnated as an otter - they always look as if they are having a really great time. It may, of course, simply be a pragmatic response to having very short legs.

A quick Google reveals that otters are indigenous to Wisconsin and I can't see any reason why they would behave differently to European otters in a similar environment.

The footprints in the photographs are also consistent with otter tracks, which appear in pairs as, having short legs, otters tend to leap rather than walk, especially in snow.

 

[krobone]

There's something vaguely Fortean about otters - I had been flummoxed by one I saw at night, thinking it might be an 'extinct' wolverine.

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... highlight=

They are curious creatures... :?

 

[CygnusRex]

Have to agree it looks like an otter, however there is an alternate an slightly disgusting explanation. It may a dog with impacted anal glands, this causes them to perform that peculiar butt-skiing motion, which they usually reserve for newly laid carpets

 

[Human_84]

What you guys dont realize is that the slides are on flat surfaces. The hills are only a few inches over the course of 15 feet or so. Otters cant slide on flat ground.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Otters cant slide on flat ground.

If you've got the right kind of surface and enough momentum surely anything can slide on flat ground.

 

[Kondoru]

As any schoolkid will demonstrate...

 

[Human_84]

But to be realistic, theres no slope. Nor is there any ice. We are talking about fluffy snow here. Not melted down, note that the tracks are still intact. Fluffy, flat, snow. No way is anything going under 100 mph making a smooth track in that kind of condition. Also, whatever slid, had scraped its belly on the rocks and not even cared.

 

[Spookdaddy]

But to be realistic, theres no slope. Nor is there any ice. We are talking about fluffy snow here. Not melted down, note that the tracks are still intact. Fluffy, flat, snow. No way is anything going under 100 mph making a smooth track in that kind of condition. Also, whatever slid, had scraped its belly on the rocks and not even cared.

I would love for this to be something out of the ordinary but I really don't think it is. And in all honesty none of your objections make much sense to me. You don't need a slope. You don't need ice. 100mph?

A fully grown European otter weighs in at between 9 and 12 kilo's (not sure about its N American counterpart) is very lithe and extremely streamlined and covered in a coat of glossy guard-hairs protecting its waterproof underfur. I'm pretty sure that this animal, if it was travelling at your suggested minimum speed of 100mph, would cover a damn sight more than 15 feet. And, using Occams Razor, fool that I am, the tracks look just like otter slides - even down to the pair of prints at the end where the animal has run out of steam and launched itself off again.

As to scratching its belly - well all I can say is that most mammals just aren't the wimps we are. I've seen groups of otters on the West Coast wrestle each other off twelve foot boulders into crashing waves - they don't care man - they are only playing, but they're hard, and they know how to party.

Given all that I'd love to know what you think the alternatives are because, even having considered some really bizarre and probably non-existant candidates, I can't think of anything that fits the bill.

[Edit]Further to the objection that there is no slope -

Otters also love to slide on their bellies. I have never found one of those "legendary" otter slides going down a stream bank; instead, I more commonly find belly slides on level ground. And when otters slide, man, they just slide & slide & slide. My observations have been that if there is snow on the ground or ice on a lake/river, otters' preferred mode of locomotion is sliding rather than walking or bounding. I have even found otter slides going uphill, on gentle grades.

Source.

 

[Kondoru]

perhaps it was a penguin? They love to toboggan, and can do it faster than you can run.

 

[oll_lewis]

the third photo the 'rocks' one looks like the snow has melted considerably since the track was made. the track is also veering away from the edge of the snow (which would have been a bit further away from the tracks when it was made) and the 'rocks' look more like bark and leaf litter to me where the actual track is.

I don't know how rare otters are where the tracks were photographed but in some parts of Europe and certainly Britain they are comparatively rare and are extremely elusive because of the pollution of the industrial revolution effecting them badly. So if they are indeed otters tracks (as I think they are too) they may not be anything cryptozoological but are perhaps still a rarity.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...in some parts of Europe and certainly Britain they are comparatively rare and are extremely elusive...

Gratifyingly they are on the increase in Britain and even recolonising areas where they have been absent for generations - but still a rarity.

In some areas of N America and Canada otters are more common but this kind of spoor is still, according to sources on the web, relativey rare and therefore fairly special in itself without the need to attribute it to anything more mysterious.

 

[Human_84]

Its likely an otter, but I dont understand how it can slide so far in puffy snow. It would sink right in. Its not as if the snow has been melted because you see in the same photos that the tracks are stil intact. I dont get how it slides in puffy snow, flat ground?

 

[Kondoru]

Otters are localised, but I have never found them shy; quite the opposite in fact. I have seen them pop up on quite busy beaches.

 

[oll_lewis]

Its likely an otter, but I dont understand how it can slide so far in puffy snow. It would sink right in. Its not as if the snow has been melted because you see in the same photos that the tracks are stil intact. I dont get how it slides in puffy snow, flat ground?

I would guess that if it is going along flat ground then the otter would be pulling itself along by its front legs and the tracks from the front legs are 'rubbed out' by the new track of the otters body.

think of it as sort of like a child walking in the snow pulling a heavy sled behind it, the effort to make the thing move is coming from the child pulling the sled but only the trough from the sled will be visible unless the sled is picked up and then the child's boot prints will be visible in the snow.

The otter needn't have been going fast is could have been dragging itself though the snow at a steady pace. Due to an otters shape it can move quickly in water but the long body and short legs mean that dragging itself in this manner may be faster and use less energy than actually walking or running, odd as it sounds . Otters use this way of getting around often when there's no snow as well so one can assume their underbellies are fairly tough and scraping across the odd stone wouldn't be painful to them so long as they didn't overdo it.

 

[Spookdaddy]

I dont get how it slides in puffy snow, flat ground?

I would guess that if it is going along flat ground then the otter would be pulling itself along by its front legs and the tracks from the front legs are 'rubbed out' by the new track of the otters body.

Otters do slide in the way Flash describes, using their legs to push themselves along, but I believe that leaves a slightly different spoor to the one in the photographs.

In response to Human's query I imagine, and I stand to be corrected by someone with more scientific knowledge than myself (which wouldn't be difficult) that the same rules apply as when a non-buoyant object moves across the surface of a body of water - as long as the effects of the momentum exceed the effects of friction the object will keep moving. Once the effects of the latter exceed the effects of the former the object will stop and sink.

perhaps it was a penguin? They love to toboggan, and can do it faster than you can run.

Another of my favourite animals. I'm beginning to suspect that my personal criteria when choosing candidates for potential reincarnation relies heavily on the ability to slide up and down things.

 

[Human_84]

It kinda makes sense to me now. There can be a social barrier between us because of the seperate countries sometimes i think. By sliding I originally was visualizing a hill and an otter cruising down the ice on its belly. But on these flat surfaces it wasnt possibly. I now understand what you mean by sliding, it was pulling its weight across. Pretty logical I guess. Only thing I still dont get is why the slides go for a distance, and then normal tracks, back and forth. They're cant be that much of a variation in snow depths can there?

 

[Leaferne]

Running to build up momentum? Stopped to sniff the air? Not sure where you live but I grew up in an area where the Canadian Shield had an impertinent way of thrusting itself up out of the ground wherever it pleased, so I'm not surprised there'd be variations.

 

[GNC]

The otter movie Ring of Bright Water was on TV here in the UK recently, and it shows an otter sliding through the snow in one scene, including along flat ground. So there you go, Human 84, track down that film and your questions will be answered.