How to Identify Bobcat and Other Animal Tracks
The bobcat is a stealthy and seldom-seen member of the feline family that has a wide range throughout North America. While you probably will get few chances of glimpsing this stubby-tailed cat, which can weigh as much as 30 lbs., you can locate and identify its tracks if you know what to look for. Other animals of the woodland landscape will also leave prints that, with some training, you can recognize with little problem.
Instructions
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Identify the bobcat track by its various features. Look for a four-toed track that has no claw marks at the end of the toes. The toes will appear rounded and the heel-pad of the bobcat will leave an impression with three lobes on the bottom and two on the top. Measure the track; the typically bobcat imprint is about 2 inches by 2 inches. Notice that in many cases, bobcat tracks will overlap as the cat will set its front foot down and then walk either in or very close to the track with its back foot.
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Identify the track of canines by the claw marks they leave behind. The fox, coyote and wolf, three predators that compete with the bobcat in much of its geographic range, have four toes on each foot but unlike cats, they cannot retract their claws. This causes them to leave an imprint in the snow, mud or sand that you can employ to recognize them. Look for the slightly elongated toe print and a heel-pad that lacks the "scalloped" look of the bobcats on the bottom. The fox has tracks about 2 inches long, with the coyote slightly longer and the wolf's track as long as 5 inches.
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Identify the tracks of rodents by the number of toes on the front and back feet. All rodents, which include mice, squirrels and chipmunks, have four front toes and five in the back. The size of the track will tip you off to the potential rodent that left them, with those of the mice obviously smaller than those of a porcupine, for instance.
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Identify the tracks that the weasel family leaves behind by the presence of five toes in each track. Front and back feet of animals such as skunks, otters, badgers and mink possess these characteristics.
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Identify the tracks of the raccoon by their resemblance to an elongated miniature footprint of a human. The raccoon's track is much longer than it is wide and has five toes on all feet. Look for these tracks in the mud of a riverbank or next to a stream.
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Identify a bear track by its large size. Five toes on each foot exist in a bear track, which can be as long as 9 inches in the case of the black bear's rear foot and as long as 12 inches for a grizzly bear's hind paw. The hind foot tracks of bear tracks, according to the National Audubon Field Guide to Mammals, look as if a "flat-footed" person wearing a pair of moccasins made them.
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Tips & Warnings
Realize that finding a track in perfect condition seldom happens. Your best chance is to go looking for tracks after a very light first snowfall of the season.
