Tracking Quizzes

Quiz #2 - Question

• Habitat: Suburban powerline / railroad corridor, treeless, thickly grown with thickets of rose & raspberry, plus thistle, mullein, pokeweed. Plentiful water. Tracks were 50 yards behind a row of residential houses.
• Location: Hartford, Connecticut.
• Time of Year: November 30 (second snow of the year here).
• Substrate: 2" of fresh, wet snow. The "Trail 3" photo shows tracks in a thicket, in which the 2" of fresh snow was on top of 5" of previous snow; the remainder of the photos show tracks on a dirt road, which had melted out almost bare prior to the 2" of snow.
• Footprint size: 1 ½" long x 1 ¼" wide.
• Stride: 5" almost every stride; occasionally up to 5 ½".
• Trail Width: 3 ½".
• Trail was very zigzag & meandering (see "Trail 1" photo). Note avoidance of mud puddles (see "Trail 2"). Made regular use of snow-covered thickets as shelter (see "Trail 3"). Drags feet slightly in 2" deep snow (see "Stride & Trail Width").

Have fun,
Brian

Footprint 1

Footprint 2

Footprint 3

Front & Rear Print

Claws

Trail 1

Trail 2

Trail 3

Stride & Trail width

Quiz #2 - Answer