Track ID???

[ishiwannabe]

 

Took these this morning at my buddy's place. I think I know what they are, but would like some feedback from my trad gang brothers...pic quality is rather poor. With the naked eye, details were much clearer and they basically showed a tri-lobe pad with four toes. Any ideas guys and girls?

[Longbowz]

Bear.

Left front foot in first picture, right front in second picture.

[MI_Bowhunter]

Looks like bear to me

[pine nut]

cougar

[Matt Fowler]

I'm leanin' towards feline.

[bgram]

Mt. Lion would be my guess.

[Wulomac]

four toes = cougar.  five toes = bear.

[Seven]

My guess: That thar is a bear!  I think I can see the fifth toe on the right hand side.  Catamount/cougar do in fact have a tri-lobed ending of the heel pad but they also have a bi-lobed upper edge heel pad (between the toes and the heel pad).  In this track, even in it's hard to see state of being a picture, I can clearly see more than two lobes.  I think there are four.  Looks like a black bear right front foot to me, Ursus Americanus.  With the size of your pen being about 6" I'd estimate this track to be about 4" - 4.5" wide?    But with the quality of the picture it's really hard to tell.  If you can go back and take more pictures, put a ruler next to the track in the same orientation as the track ie straight along the bottom edge, not angled.  Also if you take the picture with the track between you and the light you'll see the details better.  And if you get close to the ground say 6" off of it, you'll also get the outline better.  -Chad

[Izzy]

Bear for sure.

[Roughcountry]

I'm gonna say bear, my blood didn't go ta high pressure like a lion track makes it.

Details are not quite there, but shape says bear to me.

[ishiwannabe]

Hmmmm....some votes fot each so far. Both are a possibility here. I was leaning towards lion, but now Im kinda confused. Here are a couple of different pics.
 

 

Keep it coming guys. Thanks.

[KrEn]

Bear

, the "little" toe mark can be invisible. But then, i have never seen a Cougar track. Most cats tend to have a more triangular central pad, and more fore-aft separation of the side and central toes
Is there any claw marks? Bear tend to have great big claws.

K

[Ted Fry]

Bear for sure, good one Rough Country , glad to see I am not the only one out there that happens to.

[Keith361]

Chuppacabbra, riding on the back of a bear...

[Stalker58]

No doubt.
It's A Bear.

[ishiwannabe]

There were no claw marks whatsoever. Not any indication of the fifth toe either. The thing that made lean towards lion was the fact that it APPEARED that the front and back feet were roughly the same size, and the tracks were in a line instead of staggered like a bear.
Again, the track and pic quality arent great, but I appreciate everyones input. Either way, Im hunting that area tomorrow.

[GingivitisKahn]

The bear guys are pretty confident but I think that's a big, honkin' cat.  

Were there more tracks - if so what was the pattern?  Is that critter a diagonal walker (like a deer or cat) or a pacer (like a badger or a bear) or something else?

[ishiwannabe]

These tracks were on the edge of a large puddle. Im guessing they are about a week old, as that is the last time this ground would have been soft enough to leave these impressions.
The tracks were almost on top of eachother. Almost in a line...all tracks there were the same size. No difference whatsoever, and the gait was about 18-24", track to track. I used Petersons field guide for animal tracks and came up with lion for a few reasons. Gait of a bear differs from these tracks, their back feet leave another shape track altogether, and the gait is generally shorter(unless its a huge blackie). I then compared lion, and it all sort of fit. Shape, line of travel, gait, size. I also think that a bear with a 4.5-5" track would leave deeper impressions in the "mud" than say a 150# cat.

Again, I know the pic quality is bad, maybe I can get more pics tomorrow.

[Ted Fry]

Here is a nice pic of a cat track taken today by a friend near my house, big difference.  

[ishiwannabe]

Ted, thank you. That ended all doubt for me real quick.