What do we think? Fisher bobcat or racoon?

[Echelontheory101]

Seems too long of a print to be a fisher cat (but im no expert) and not enough fingery to be a raccoon. Too small to be a bear or mountain lion or my neighbors dogs. No digging or anything shown anywhere on the perimeter of the coop but the tracks come out of the woods walk around the back of the coop once over to my compost pile and then back into the woods. Google reverse image search thinks its a Bobcat which i have seen on my property before but I trust Google AI as far as I can throw it lol

Also texted this to a few hunter friends as I'm sure they'll know

For what I have around here, if you can think of it, the answer is yes lol

Any guesses would be appreciated!

 

[Echelontheory101]

I think i may have identified it! Looks like porcupine tracks below are images i found online

Hoping thats what it is! I have 19 guage 1/2 inch hardware cloth with polycarbonate plastic panels screwed over it for winter and thats above 34 inches of wood wall at the base and 2 feet of hardware cloth buried skirt so even if it is fisher cat I think Im probably good!

 

[Debbie292d]

Sounds like your coop is pretty predator-proofed! I'd consider getting an outdoor camera or trail cam so you could see what's coming around.

We border a forest here, so the two dogs keep most of the riff-raff back, but they got to sleep too, so we have tons of solar motion lights around.

Oddly enough, I've had to shoot two sick animals that wound up smack dab in the middle of our yard; a skunk and a raccoon. Both were very ill, and just odd why they come up here to die. There's a steep hill behind us with a creek down there, and it's all forest in between.

 

[Echelontheory101]

Sounds like your coop is pretty predator-proofed! I'd consider getting an outdoor camera or trail cam so you could see what's coming around.

We border a forest here, so the two dogs keep most of the riff-raff back, but they got to sleep too, so we have tons of solar motion lights around.

Oddly enough, I've had to shoot two sick animals that wound up smack dab in the middle of our yard; a skunk and a raccoon. Both were very ill, and just odd why they come up here to die. There's a steep hill behind us with a creek down there, and it's all forest in between.

That sounds spookily familiar to my setup! I'm in a clearing of very tall Eastern hemlock trees there's a brook that separates my property from the street about 10 ft wide i have a 22 foot bridge and the back of my property probably like 3.5 acres of my land is a super eteep hill that is thickly forested as well. I do have protection for them but to be honest my aim is terrible so it's never really something I resort to, I need more time at the range lol and no dogs except for my neighbors dogs who do occasionally come around uninvited lol

Also yes I'm pretty predator-proofed, I think the only thing that I'll never be able to keep out are the bears, but my entire street is farms and the dairy farm down the street has better pickings than my property so they generally speaking stay away or just pass through. Weasles scare the crap out of me because of how little space they need to get into something.

I have a camera inside the coop and cameras facing my garage and driveway but maybe I should put one on a tree somewhere by the coop to see the perimeter of it to see if anything comes sniffing thats a great idea!

And yes lots of motions activated lights and in the summer Ill have motion activated sprinklers (my landscapers learned the hard way on those sorry guys lol) but obviously cant in the winter or I'd freeze my pipes.

Hoping it was just a cute porcupine coming to check out the compost pile and getting on his way. I haven't seen any more tracks since luckily