what is this on my game-cam?

[woodmort]

One of the problems with game cams lies in poor prospective which seems to be the problem here--that and the animals don't pose. Also with the night pictures there is no coloring, just shading, to go by. With that in mind, I suspect the animal in question is a grey fox. These animals are very "cat-like" in both size, the way they move and the fact that they can climb trees. I have a pair that appear regularly in my cam pics--take a look at these and compare them to the unknown animal.

First the obligatory crow picture:

Now, same camera and a moving grey fox:

Finally another camera, same fox but it is hold, relatively, still:

Note the color, tail and leg configuration. Those that have guess bob or wild cat--the unknown has too much tail for either. GA is a little to far south for fishers. While a Mt lion, puma, Florida Panther or whatever would be a good guess the animal is too small to be an adult and the shading wouldn't match to a young one--besides at that size momma would have also made it into the picture. The only other possibility would be a domestic cat but again the shading is wrong for most unless, as some one pointed out, it is an Abyssinian.

Oh BTW, the cougar that was kill by a car in CT had traveled across country from the Dakotas. It had been spotted in MN, WI and NY and tracked using DNA from hair left behind. Apparently the NY DEC knew about it but didn't report is as they figured it was traveling through and didn't want to alarm or have vigilantes hunting it down.

 

[outdoor junkie]

I'm saying house cat. it is definitly not a fox. Not a fox tail, nore does it have a canine head. it is most definitly a cat of sorts, but looks far too smal lto be a cougar.

 

[NYRIR]

Quote:
Yes you are right. A cougar has been harassing a friend of mines cattle at night, although several people have seen it ...there are supposed to be none here

I know there are some here....too many people have seen one.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
You see a head? Picture #2 is the closes and in that it is lifting it's leg on a bush--not very cat like. #4 is almost identical to the first picture of mine. You're expecting too bushy a tail on a fox but the shading and angle aren't good enough to tell. Also the animal is in summer coat so wouldn't expect to see as much hair. From what I can tell of the sequence is that it appears to be chasing something--a mouse--on that hill so it's moving around pretty well and that is giving a bad angle to the camera's location. The only thing that makes me a little bit leery on my ID is that it isn't holding it's tail in a fox-like position but that may have to do with whatever it is doing and it may be using the tail for balance.

Here's another picture of a pair of grey's from the same camera as the first two pictures.

 

[redriver]

Okay. I was totally curious as to what this animal is. When I first skimmed through the photos, I thought it was a fox. After reading all of the posts so far, and going back and looking at the photos over and over again I finally did this.

Printed out the picture of the crows. Printed out the last picture of the animal. I chose those two because it is the closest that the mystery animal gets to where the crow that is standing is. When I printed them out I used the same scale for both (100%). Then I simply used some scissors to cut a rectangle out, which included the time stamp and the crow, and taped it over the image of the unknown animal. Since I printed them out as draft images (so they wouldn't use up all my ink), the pictures aren't that clear. I outlined them in pen for a little bit better clarity. The crow is simply circled.

You decide what you think it is. Feel free to try it at home if you'd like better image quality. Of course, it is all a matter of perception. It could be that the location of the mystery animal is actually a lot closer to the camera than the image of the crow.

RedRiver

 

[bloom_ss]

Don't have time to read through all the posts at the moment to see what the consensus is, but my very first thought was cougar. I did read a few comments and I gathered that you don't believe you have any cougars in the area there, but the pictures look like a young cougar. I could be wrong, but that is what it looks like to me.

 

[drumstick diva]

I vote for young cougar, I thought on first, second and last impression.

 

[EMaker]

maizy'smom :

Quote:
I was hoping some one would mention this as a possibility. The pictures do look like some sort of larger-than-a-house-cat cat, but longer, leaner and finer featured than a cougar/mt lion. I THINK the fisher cat fits that description. Just a thought. Now, I'm going to go do a little research.

mm

It is not a fisher, I'm certain of that. Aside from being dark and mink colored, the fisher more closely resembles a large, stout ferret. This creature is feline. Also, the very faint stridations seen on the animal's fur indicate a juvenile cougar (aka mountain lion). Cougar cubs are striped, not unlike lion cubs. As the cub matures, the stridations fade and disappear. Given the smaller size of this animal, and the faintness of the stridations, I'd say it's a juvenile cougar, probably born this past season.​

 

[EMaker]

Quote:
That is true, but there have been sightings of many more cougars since then, and frankly, for the past few years. There wasn't just one cougar, who was seen in numerous locales along the northern east coast, from CT to NH, as well as inland in NY, and then that sole cougar was unlucky enough to be hit and killed by a car on the highway. I don't buy that; there are more than one. Either the eastern mountain lion (eastern cougar) is not extinct at all (which is my guess) or many cougars have made their way here from the Dakotas and similar areas. Regardless, there's no doubt about it, we've got cougars in them thar' woods!

 

[EMaker]

Quote:
I wouldn't continue doing so, if I were you...it really does look like a juvenile cougar.