TRACKS: Who dunnit?
- Thread starter JonathanD
- Start date
Hehe., if you notice, in the whole thread I've not actually labelled the prints as anything but what they are.... Unusual prints without claw marks that follow a route unusual for the animals I'm familiar with here in the UK. Everyone pointing to a feline solution has certainly never been me as apart from the tracks, I have no evidence to support that theory. It could well be a dog that is deformed. I have no evidence other than those prints. A 2D image of a 3D (one might argue 4D if you include the mental image created by the gait and trail as a whole) environment can be misleading as this has proven. I could show more pictures, but the evidence within those is less than the ones shown as they were shallower and taking pictures of the entire trail was fruitless as the resolution did not pick out the prints. I have shown the clearest of those taken as representative of the whole. I wasn't trying to present a scientific paper on the subject. I do too much of that in my day job and this is my fun time. I've been out to the area since, but it's been too dry for prints.
am I close to where you say?
That's what I wanted. None of those points are near where a claw would be located in relation to the pad orientation. They are also too close in or too far out from the periphery of the pad. They are also the indentations I identified as of a greater age than the print made before or during the rainfall and losing definition due to that.
I can see exactly what your saying wolfie, but going on the depth of the impression of the pads, I would have thought that as the foot rotated out of the print the claws would have left a much deeper scrape( excepting that I am as you are only looking at a pic in still life), even a well clipped dog will leave very clear claw marks.
I think we can call this one an "open case with on going enquiries"!
Sometimes with tracking the answers remain out of our grasp. Hard to deal with sometimes but makes it better when we do find the answers to other tracking questions. I think of my tracking deductions as temporary until they can be disproved by better info. When you track on your own you are always right, even when you realise you are wrong because you then right again! (hope that make sense)
The comments on the photos were general ones. I've seen some terrible track photos (mine included) that can totally change the appearance of the track. Like I said the main thing for photos is context, context, context. Gaits, routes in, routes out, close ups, 360 views of environment etc, etc..... they are all vital, the more info the better.
Sometimes with tracking the answers remain out of our grasp. Hard to deal with sometimes but makes it better when we do find the answers to other tracking questions. I think of my tracking deductions as temporary until they can be disproved by better info. When you track on your own you are always right, even when you realise you are wrong because you then right again! (hope that make sense)
The comments on the photos were general ones. I've seen some terrible track photos (mine included) that can totally change the appearance of the track. Like I said the main thing for photos is context, context, context. Gaits, routes in, routes out, close ups, 360 views of environment etc, etc..... they are all vital, the more info the better.
It's exactly the challenging posts that you created that I needed in this thread, so please keep them coming. The one thing that I hate when presented with these conundrums, is a lack of final, confirmed conclusion. I don't think I'll get one until I see the animal leaving these exact tracks. Still, it gives me something to do on my days off.
Thank you for taking the time to upload the photos. This thread has been most interesting!
Everything about that track - your photos and description - makes me think of the lynx I have tracked in northern sweden. A magnificent animal by the way - and terribly difficult to photograph!
Could a captive/"domesticated" lynx have caused the tracks? Would it be possible for someone in the area to have - knowingly or otherwise - released a lynx to the wild?
Some years ago I tracked and photographed a group of wild boar here in Denmark - all the while everybody was telling me that these animals were no longer to be found in Denmark. But it is easier when you actually have a photo of the animal! Found out later that the group of wild boars were - illegally and intentionally - released to the environment by a group of hunters who fancied some more challenging hunts.
If there still are signs of activity in the area I would recommend setting up a trail camera to heighten the chance for capturing some further evidence.
//Kim Horsevad
As well as photos try casts for examining prints in detail. Sometimes the negative casts can help reveal previously unnotced detail. Noticed it with a cast I took today. The advantage is that you have the print in 3d, you can then make positive prints and can study the print at your leisure.
Anything is possible Kim. The illegal trade in dangerous and exotic animals in this country is second only to the drugs trade. Many people keep DWA cats, snakes, inverts illegally in the UK. There are the legal keepers too, and there is no real registration of individual animals once a licence has been granted (depending on which local council grants the licence as all county rules vary slightly). I could go out and buy 20 Black mambas if I wanted as long as my licence was presented. Although questions obviously may be asked if I did go out and try such a thing.
I took two casts, both of which are with the Natural History Museum. They requested the other one after seeing the first. I'm not due back there until next month, so hopefully an answer will be forthcoming.
It just so happened that I was reading this thread on my phone in the pub last night.
The other 3 blokes with me asked what I was reading and I told them it was about some possible big cat tracks and expecting to be met with derision.
Instead I was regaled with tales of three seperate sightings between two of them in the past few years and all in pretty much the same area.
Both of them are intelligent country blokes in their 60's and not into telling porkies, they said they'd always kept it quiet because people would think they were mad.
All three times were of a large black cat, they'd already discounted in their minds "funny coloured foxes and deer and, of course, dogs".
The other 3 blokes with me asked what I was reading and I told them it was about some possible big cat tracks and expecting to be met with derision.
Instead I was regaled with tales of three seperate sightings between two of them in the past few years and all in pretty much the same area.
Both of them are intelligent country blokes in their 60's and not into telling porkies, they said they'd always kept it quiet because people would think they were mad.
All three times were of a large black cat, they'd already discounted in their minds "funny coloured foxes and deer and, of course, dogs".
I think the biggest convincer that they really are out there for me is that Ian Maxwell reckons they are, and Uncle Ray has publicly stated he has seen three. Not two gentlemen who would make such statements rashly, especially RM who thinks every word he says through before going on record in any way.
Yeah, it's all in the thread. http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68914&p=836424#post836424
Last edited:
Thoroughly entertaining thread. One of the strongest driving forces for me is problem solving and the resulting solutions. This is a prime example (even though there's been no definitive answer). Thanks heaps. Maybe tracking is something I should look at learning myself, I'd be as happy as a pig in poo.
Thanks for this thread guys.
I've really enjoyed reading it through over the last couple of visits.
I wont be assuming the obvious in future around my local patch.
I've really enjoyed reading it through over the last couple of visits.
I wont be assuming the obvious in future around my local patch.
There is an add on to this...
Big big bone. I have more pics and will sort them out as soon as poss. Found in the same area as the prints.
Big big bone. I have more pics and will sort them out as soon as poss. Found in the same area as the prints.
