NatureTracking.com
Originally posted on May 30, 2017
Blog by Erin Hauge
You're hiking in a beautiful, remote area and you come across some damp ground near a river. You look down and see some pretty big tracks. Could they belong to a puma?
The tracks have claws showing but sometimes puma claws will show depending on the type of surface they're walking on.
Who do you think made the tracks just below? (The answer is at the bottom of the page!)
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Feline tracks are usually rounder and canid (canine) tracks are usually more oval. Also when puma claw marks are visible they're usually sharp and thin. Canid claws are more blunt. And in canid tracks, you can actually see an X between toe and heel pads of the track. Feline tracks don't have that characteristic, with the heel pad generally being larger and more lobed.
Feline and canine tracks for comparision. The bobcat track is 1.75 inches long. Erin Hauge
The more you look at tracks and their characteristics, the better you'll get at being able to tell subtle differences. Often it's difficult to tell who made the tracks - sometimes you'll come across coyote tracks that have no claw impressions, and finding a puma track with claw impressions is unusual, but it happens.
The more you look, the more you'll see and learn about those you share the trail with.
Resources:
A great book for beginning trackers in California is the California Natural History Guide: "Field Guide to Animal Tracks and Scat of California."
And a great comprehensive tracking guide is "Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species" by Mark Elbroch.
Nature Tracking has a great page on puma tracks here. (The 6th image from top shows puma track with claw marks in impressionable surface and they're sharp and punctual.):
The tracks above were made by Coyote!
