Help me ID this track

[UncleJak]

This track is near a underground spring where I have seen deer, turkey, and coyotes. It is about as wide as my hand. Anyone recognize it? Thanks!!

[sjames90]

There's bears in them there hills!

[Lumber_Jack]

Looks like a bear to me

[Trekbike]

That was my thoughts as well.

[Ttitan27]

Coon maybe?? Hard to tell the size of the track but looking at size of leaves present compared to track size,,,,,,,I don't think bear

[ShaunM]

I would say racoon.

[ShaunM]

Looks like a deer track beside it also.

[Guest BungieCord]

Coon.

[UncleJak]

The track was as wide as my hand. Definitley not a racoon. I did see a few racoon tracks too, but they were much smaller than this one. There were a bunch of deer tracks and a few coyote tracks. The picture doesn't show the size as good as it should....

[EMB145]

Chupracaba

[ShaunM]

Is that a deer track next to it? Looks like it.

[UncleJak]

Yes, that is a deer track. I saw about 10 deer near there two days before I went.

[DaveS]

I see a raccoon track, and possibly a deer /pig track. Neither one would be as wide as your hand...I just don't see a bear track or a horse, or a chicken. Not even a Zombie track! I see a coon and a deer. A deer track is about 2 inches wide. The "coon" track next to it does not exceed it's width. You are dealing with perhaps a very large coon. It doesn't even look close to a bear track.

Edited March 8, 2012 by wd-40

[DaveS]

I give up trying to post pictures...this doesn't work like it used too.....

Edited March 8, 2012 by wd-40

[ShaunM]

[DaveS]

Right on 101!!!

[monkeylizard]

[bluedog]

It took 17 posts to get a black panther joke? Folks are slacking on this rainy day!

[Fourtyfive]

Ha! The black panther rises again !

[whiskey]

It's clearly a triple track. I'd say the raccoon was chasing the deer and the black panther was chasing the raccoon. Now how these three ended up the on the cross country track team is another story all together.

Often tracks appear larger in the mud, so it could be a coon track. Comparing it to the deer track next to it, that would seem most likely.

[UncleJak]

I'd say the raccoon was chasing the deer and the black panther was chasing the raccoon

And I was chasing all three....

I am going to try and get some better pictures of these tracks and throw down a ruler for size comparison. Back to the woods....

[DaveS]

Be Safe!

[Glenn]

I am certainly no track expert, but black bears don't show that much claw when walking do they?

Glenn

[runco]

This is a picture I downloaded using google. It is a confirmed raccoon track in the mud. The two pics looks to similiar to me. If its as big as your hands, its probably a large coon, plus the mud can distort the size from entry to exit. Otherwise you may have small hands. On the other hand, this might be one on them Northern gators. Call Troy, he will know. Tell him you thank you have gatur tracks up ther in Tennessee. Love that show.

[Timestepper]

Without better pics I'd have to agree with most everyone else and say that you've got a big 'coon (maybe as much as 30-40 pounds) there.

Couple things we can determine for sure: It's not a cat of any kind - their claws are nearly always retracted and don't show up in tracks. It's not a canine - too many toes and no pug mark (which would be visible in mud this soft). It's probably not a 'possum - unless he's a world-freakin'-record throwback to dinosaur times. And... It's NOT a bear - even in the mud the toes would be broader and you'd have a more defined pad area, not to mention that even a cub generally leaves a bigger print than the average deer. (Plus, the deer track seems to be superimposed over part of the other track and deer don't usually like to go where bears have recently been.)

No, I'd say what you've got is a great big 'coon walking kinda' splay-footed through the mud so as not to sink in.

One caveat - raccoons are genetically related to bears, so if you wanted to s-t-r-e-t-c-h things a little bit and tell folks that you've found tracks from a member of the bear family, you wouldn't really be lying.