That’s the last time I take a fox track for granted.
Yesterday when I was walking through a sand quarry I spotted a Hare from around 400 meters away, I paid particular attention the ground it was on so I could cross over and get a look at his tracks. On closer inspection the similarity to a Fox track was quite remarkable. The complete gait was very distinctive, and obviously the fore feet and hind feet vary greatly in length. The front and rear pads are also of different sizes, but at a run only the front part of the larger rear pad touches the ground and this is where it could get confusing, if you were to find one or two hind feet in isolation it would be all too easy to jump to the fox conclusion .
After a closer look I notest the 1st and 4th digital pads are slightly off parallel and there is defenatly no interdigital pad so watch out for that next time you find a “FOX” track.
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.. .
.
..same track plus 48 hours with wind and heavy rain.
.
All images are HARE tracks Lepus capensis.
Yesterday when I was walking through a sand quarry I spotted a Hare from around 400 meters away, I paid particular attention the ground it was on so I could cross over and get a look at his tracks. On closer inspection the similarity to a Fox track was quite remarkable. The complete gait was very distinctive, and obviously the fore feet and hind feet vary greatly in length. The front and rear pads are also of different sizes, but at a run only the front part of the larger rear pad touches the ground and this is where it could get confusing, if you were to find one or two hind feet in isolation it would be all too easy to jump to the fox conclusion .
After a closer look I notest the 1st and 4th digital pads are slightly off parallel and there is defenatly no interdigital pad so watch out for that next time you find a “FOX” track.
.
.. .
.
..same track plus 48 hours with wind and heavy rain.
.
All images are HARE tracks Lepus capensis.
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