Strange tracks, any ideas?

Tala

Flock Mistress
10 Years
Apr 14, 2009
6,372
73
251
Benton (Saline County) AR
I've been finding some strange tracks. My father in law acquired this really fine powdery white sand stuff, and it's great for tracking. It's not directly around my coop, but on the driveway and walkways nearby.
I took lots of pictures because it's hard to get a good picture with a flashlight and a cell phone, so maybe some of them will be clear-enough to see good

THIS doesn't even look like an animal track that I could imagine
IMG01061-20110618-0054.jpg


Again, with some human prints near it
IMG01060-20110618-0054.jpg


Some of the tracks look like hooves maybe? but not exactly like a deer
IMG01059-20110618-0050.jpg


again, looks like 2 sides of a hoof maybe?
IMG01056-20110618-0049.jpg


Some of them are spread pretty far apart, hard to see but there's one top left above my flashlight and one at the bottom of it
IMG01049-20110618-0046.jpg


This looks kinda similar to the first two pictures
IMG01045-20110618-0045.jpg
IMG01044-20110618-0045.jpg


IMG01062-20110618-0055.jpg


Some of the tracks are closer together, there's 3 in this pic
IMG01063-20110618-0055.jpg


Same 3 with better lighting
IMG01064-20110618-0055.jpg


I've not seen any critter that I can't identify on my game camera, mostly dogs and cats. Unfortunately I had the memory card in my pocket when these tracks were made today, so no pictures. The tracks could have been made anytime after about 1pm till 1am, but they seemed pretty fresh when I was there after midnight. The human prints from earlier in the day are obviously older as the fine sand blows around easily in the wind and makes the edges less crisp. I have seen these tracks before when checking for dog tracks, but couldn't identify it then either.
The bottom picture looks almost like rabbit tracks, but the top pictures don't look like rabbit to me.
 
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I think there are several different tracks there, and none of them are very clear.

Try smoothing out the area, and dampen it a little to get a better impression and see if it comes back
 
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It's entirely possible, I've seen them in the neighbor's yard. I've been running a came camera out there for almost a year now in different positions and different angles, sometimes towards the coop sometimes towards the drive. Funny that I've NEVER seen a deer in my yard on it.
 
I know this is going to sound funny but my first idea was it looked like the print of a water fountain being set down, the edges of most of the curved prints are very flat and sharp and there seems to be a center impression also.
 
Der prints are more of a V shape without the V actually connecting. There would be a gap. A rabbit you would see 2 smaller prints in front of the longer ones. A frog would leave the whole frog inprint. When they jump it tosses some of the sand with it's hind legs and would leave the multiple prints more "inline" than a deer would. A rabbit would do as the frog would. I've seen some pretty large frogs too.
 
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Thats why I say frog. I see the back feet and a belly impression and on a couple pics I can see where front feet would be too.

I vote it's a frog. When I lived in Florida I saw frogs nearly as big as cats and I would bet they nearly weighed as much if they didn't. They would come out of the storm drain that went under the house into the river behind the house and eat the cat food right along with the cats. No joke. I used to have a pic of them. I still do somewhere i'm sure.
 
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Thats why I say frog. I see the back feet and a belly impression and on a couple pics I can see where front feet would be too.

I vote it's a frog. When I lived in Florida I saw frogs nearly as big as cats and I would bet they nearly weighed as much if they didn't. They would come out of the storm drain that went under the house into the river behind the house and eat the cat food right along with the cats. No joke. I used to have a pic of them. I still do somewhere i'm sure.

Hey that might explain those really weird looking ones! Also might be why I haven't noticed it on the game camera.
 
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Thats why I say frog. I see the back feet and a belly impression and on a couple pics I can see where front feet would be too.

I vote it's a frog. When I lived in Florida I saw frogs nearly as big as cats and I would bet they nearly weighed as much if they didn't. They would come out of the storm drain that went under the house into the river behind the house and eat the cat food right along with the cats. No joke. I used to have a pic of them. I still do somewhere i'm sure.

Hey that might explain those really weird looking ones! Also might be why I haven't noticed it on the game camera.

If you have a light on outside anywhere it will attract bugs. Where there are bugs there are frogs. I've sat outside at night and watched the frogs hangoug out under out big yard light. A bug lands on the ground they have it almost as soon as it hits. Pretty cool to watch. I had to cover my potted plants because they where living in the dirt in the pots during the day.

We keep a big light out where the pens are to try to deter predators.
 

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