Footprints in the snow -Galloway forest

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Lordyosch

Forager
Aug 19, 2007
167
0
Bradford, UK
Hi all,

I've just returned from an excellent trip to Scotland. Early in the week I was in the Galloway forest, the Loch Trool area. One day, whilst out showsnoeing near to Curleywee I came across some tracks in the snow. There were no other signs of disturbance on the ground. The snow was deep so any human would have left obvious sign.

I've photographed the tracks, and a print to the side is from the 'snowflake' on my walking pole for size comparison.

Any thoughts?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...FI/AAAAAAAAGmU/IE-y_duWo8k/s1072/IMG_0140.JPG


Jay
 

Lordyosch

Forager
Aug 19, 2007
167
0
Bradford, UK
The trail went on quote a way. I followed it about 50m then lost it. The location was quite high up, a small stream nearby, under the snow. Not an otter-likely location I'd have thought.

The pattern was front left, front right, rear right, left rear. There seems to be an outer edge in front of the 'toe' marks.

The snow was quite deep, I was on snow shoes but these paws were only a cm or two into the snow



Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 2
 
Mar 15, 2011
1,118
7
on the heather
It’s very hard to tell not knowing the condition of the snow.
If the snow was fresh and deep when the animal passed the track would look much bigger than it actually was but having said that the gait still looks quite short, if the surface of the snow had frosted and hardened and the animal traveling at speed the track could look foreshorten and compressed and make the gait look quite short? we may be just looking at a series of tracks between each bounding.
My first thought was otter or marten but the gait is to short and in reality I think it’s probably much smaller, but probably still a mustelid.
As for the tail drag, I have followed Otter tracks on sand for hundreds of meters and I have never found any sign of tail drag as yet, also with otter you would probably have found some body slides on any downhill sections.
What’s the diameter of your snow plate?
Have you got any more images?

Sorry Bro I’m no help atoll.......more questions than answers.
 
Last edited:

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