# What animal made these tracks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396 "2013-02-15T15:22:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/1 "2013-02-15T15:22:21Z")
I live in Evanston, IL (just north of Chicago) and we had a light snow overnight. When I went outside, there were some odd tracks on our walkway ([photo here](http://i.imgur.com/pCR8KNA.jpg)) and I’m not sure what could have created them. The strange thing about them, to me, is the way they overlap and end up giving a single-file pattern - one footprint after another in a row. We have rabbits and squirrels, and I know these don’t belong to ether of those. We’ve also had skunks spotted in the area in the past but from what I’ve looked at online, these don’t appear to be from a skunk. They did seem to go through a small opening under our gate, maybe 4-inches high, so it’s not a very large animal. Each print-set is maybe 3-inches in width. So any ideas on what might be lurking around our house at night? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/2 "2013-02-15T15:24:17Z")
I’m going to go with “house cat”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/3 "2013-02-15T15:25:43Z")
Those are the tracks of a Bunyip. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/4 "2013-02-15T15:32:59Z")
I agree with **Munch** - house cat. I think they have a tendency to step in their own prints. Here’s a [PDF](http://www.tahoma.wednet.edu/subsite/ths/teachers/szkweb2004/apweb2005/envirothon/pdfs/Track1.pdf) with some common tracks depicted. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/5 "2013-02-15T15:47:37Z")
They seemed to big to be a house cat though. Plus, the length and spread of the toes seem wrong for a cat. In looking around at some other track patterns online, it seems like it [might be an opossum](http://www.bear-tracker.com/opossum.html). We have had them in the area in the past, but I’d forgotten about them until I started poking around. Their tracks seem to overlap, and they have more “finger” like tracks, which these had (the pic I posted isn’t great, but most of the tracks did have more finger-like toes. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/6 "2013-02-15T15:48:58Z")
Here’s [another pic I took](http://i.imgur.com/3BwntHM.jpg) that didn’t turn out great, but you can see the toes a little better. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/7 "2013-02-15T15:54:30Z")
On **Crotalus’** pdf the bobcat toes are a little more widely spread than the housecat. I see a bit of that in your pics. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/8 "2013-02-15T23:31:05Z")
I’m guessing bobcat also. During a snowfall a couple of weeks ago, I went out for an hour’s walk in the neighborhood. I saw a few sets of human prints, a couple of dog, cat, squirrel, rabbit and then I came across some I had never seen before. I looked through the link posted by Crotalus and saw nothing similar. It was three ovals, two in front and one centered behind. Each oval was about 2.5" long and 1" wide. The front two had a space of about 1" between them and another 1" space to the one in back. The prints were in line, between 2 or 3’ apart. Any ideas? This is in a suburban neighborhood on Long Island NY. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/9 "2013-02-16T01:41:21Z")
> [@MacCat](#): > > During a snowfall a couple of weeks ago, I went out for an hour’s walk in the neighborhood. I saw a few sets of human prints, a couple of dog, cat, squirrel, rabbit and then I came across some I had never seen before. I looked through the link posted by Crotalus and saw nothing similar. > > It was three ovals, two in front and one centered behind. Each oval was about 2.5" long and 1" wide. The front two had a space of about 1" between them and another 1" space to the one in back. The prints were in line, between 2 or 3’ apart. > > Any ideas? This is in a suburban neighborhood on Long Island NY. Something like these [rabbit tracks](http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/greenmountain/htm/greenmountain/links/wildlife/wildlife_photos/animals/Winter%20Rabbit%20tracks%20on%20FS%20lands..JPG)? ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/10 "2013-02-16T02:20:08Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Something like these [rabbit tracks](http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/greenmountain/htm/greenmountain/links/wildlife/wildlife_photos/animals/Winter%20Rabbit%20tracks%20on%20FS%20lands..JPG)? Yes, definitely the pattern though all the impressions seemed narrower and more distinct. That was likely due to either snow characteristics or even possibly rabbit species (cottontail around here). On my OP, I know the humans, dogs, cats and assumed on squirrel and rabbit. I’m kind of amazed that a rabbit would have a single file stride like that. Thanks very much for the answer! ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/11 "2013-02-16T02:35:20Z")
I took another look at the gate and it’s a much smaller opening underneath than I posted above. More like 2 1/2 inches at the most, not 4. It doesn’t look like a cat or bobcat would be able to squeeze through. I’m still thinking 'possum, [this pic](http://www.bear-tracker.com/newimages/opossumtracksinsnow2008.jpg)is really similar. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/12 "2013-02-16T02:37:00Z")
I’m gonna go with kangaroo. An African Kangaroo possibly migrated North for the Summer. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-made-these-tracks/650396/13 "2013-02-16T03:27:14Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > I’m still thinking 'possum, [this pic](http://www.bear-tracker.com/newimages/opossumtracksinsnow2008.jpg)is really similar. Here’s a couple more possum track pics that do look similar… [Opossum Tracks](http://wildharvest.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/opossum-tracks/) [Possum Tracks](http://thecountryteacher.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mg_3744-scr1.jpg) And here’s one that reinforces the rabbit ID for me… [Rabbit Tracks](http://www.mybadpad.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/rabbittracks.jpg) But with global warming, I’m not ready to discount the one legged migrating African Kangaroo.