Mystery print

[Mirius]

Old deer print to the left. Mystery print to the centre. V shaped with a second just below. I can't think of anything that would leave this and there was no evidence of a shoeprint around it, nor have I seen a walking stick which would leave this.

Ideas?

Thanks

 

[pwb]

Although the print on the left does look older, could they both have been made by a lame deer.
If it was carrying it's weight on it's left leg that would splay the hoof , the right hoof if not bearing weight might account for a track like that.

Pete.

 

[Mirius]

Hmmm no, that one was very fresh the other was quite washed out. I am wondering though if I'm not looking at the back end of a deer print - one going the other way. Looking at a closer up view photo it does almost look as though there might be two pads with a very small gap between them.

 

[robin wood]

The one on the left looks more like sheep to me rounded toes though that could be because it was a few days old made when the ground was softer and its washed out. The one on the right look like a small deer, small roe or muntjack. The toes don't always splay so much but you can clearly see the two toes. You have two tracks the top one is the front foot heading up in the picture and then the rear foot has nearly registered on top, that would tell you the gait if you check in a book, I suspect it is walking as going any faster then the toes would have more pressure and splay more.

 

[robin wood]

Just did a bit of googling here are some inages

Muntjac

muntjac

roe

roe

unusual roe, splayed and showing dew claws, probably putting a lot of pressure on eg jumping.

 

[Mirius]

Ah, right, well there is something new I've learnt. Thanks Robin. The bottom photo is one I'm familiar with in these woods with the toes splayed outwards and sometimes the dew claws. What I'd not seen was the toes pointing in so much that it seemed that they actually touched - though that closer photo reveals some grains of sand between.

The other isn't sheep, though I know what you mean, we don't get any sheep in that wood, it's just an old print, maybe even a couple of weeks old. I haven't seen any of the smaller deer in there for a long time.

 

[Pablo]

Most probably a Muntjac deer. There's very little splaying between the two cleave plates under normal circumstances. In your photo you can *just* see the build up of some soil to show you that there is a little gap.

On my pic you can see exactly the same indirect registration of a fast walking gait (fore in front hind to the rear). The deer is traveling towards the top of the screen by the way.

.

 

[mayobushcraft]

I am not yet that familiar with the different types of deer over here but the print on the left is from much earlier when the area was very muddy and the deer was splaying its foot its possible that it was running cant tell from the picture.