I found these tracks this morning at the entrance to a hay barn that is rarely visited by people. I seen alot of dog and coyote tracks around it also, but these are not coyote and :confused: I dont believe they are a dogs track, did see some smaller ones that looked like cat tracks around. We dont have Mt. lions in this area that I know of :shrug: but I guess its possible. can any of you guys that are more familiar with tracks ID them ? They are about fist sized and there is a .223 bullet as reference.
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc195/securpro/DSCN1241.jpg) (http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc195/securpro/DSCN1242.jpg)
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc195/securpro/DSCN1245.jpg)
sorry the pics aren't better......
Sorry to say, but the last pic is dog. You can see the nail print and big cats don't leave a nail track and if they do leave one, it is very pointed and not blunt like the one in the picture.
My opinion [and it's only my opinion] is that individual tracks and/or tracks that are less than nicely imprinted can be decieving. I kinda feel like it is sometimes easier to differentiate domestic dog vs yote [because of the center pad] and cat vs yote because of the center pad and the shape, but cat vs domestic dog gets a bit squirrelly if the single prints aren't showing claws. Some hounds seem to make tracks that look like cats because of the shape and sometimes they don't show claws cause of how they stepped. Now this is probably cause I'm not real good at differentiating tracks...... I have an area I hunt where I finded tracks like this....
(http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f372/StuDaBaka/NCTrack0706.jpg)
The smart money says this is probably a big hound, but I keep scratching my head, wondering, and hoping to find a full sequence of tracks.... that's a 22-250 shell for reference and this place is only 20 miles or so from Charlotte NC where per the wildlife guys 'there is no breeding population of lions'.
In all truth, I personally can't say what made your track(s), but I can say that I have found tracks and caught several tom bob cat with a track that size. I agree that that last track seems to show a nail mark that would lean me toward guessing it to be a domestic dog.
One thing I've noticed about domestic dog tracks is their front claw marks are usually more distinct than the claw marks on their rear paws. I've seen a lot of their tracks with no claws on the back feet. :shrug: