hardcastonly

I was walking out in front of the house last night and one of the kids spots some hoof prints in the dirt on the edge of the road,
now we have the occasional coyote, racoon, ,armadillo, gators and egrets,
all the time or opossum, and of course,the neighbors have cattle, and lots of horses, dogs and cats ,and chickens and ducks
but the kids were not familiar with these tracks,
they were excited, and came running over and said ,
hey grumpy, we must have deer in the neighborhood....
I looked at the tracks and its a fairly easy mistake to make...
but it was not deer tracks it was hog tracks,
yeah, we have a few wild hogs come through our rural area at times at night.
with some experience, the difference in what the tracks look like,
is rather obvious if you have a few dozen to look over both in size and shape and stride length.
but its nice to see the kids recognized the tracks as something out of the ordinary.
Ive seen guys who should know better out hunting ,
that don,t know the difference or could tell you what direction the animal was walking in for that matter!











Last edited: A moment ago

Bob H in NH

The one I need to figure out is elk or moose. I see lots of moose where I elk hunt and would love to learn to differentiate before I start chasing down a moose!

MudderChuck

I once followed a sounder of Hogs for hours, I thought it was odd all the tracks were about the same size. I finally caught up with them and heard the bleats before I saw the Sheep.

I'm not all that good at differentiating species by their tracks sometimes, but if you apply a little logic it helps to sort out what you are looking at. Who, What, Where, When and Why. Most wildlife needs are basic, food, cover, water and sex.

hardcastonly

his may help
https://animals.mom.me/difference-be...ints-7084.html


Moose hooves have sharply pointed toes that point inward at the tips, giving the tracks elongated heart shapes.
Elk hooves have rounded toes, with each segment of the hoof parallel to each other, giving the tracks shapes that are not unlike the silhouette of an molar tooth.
lots of tracks together, generally elk,
moose tend to be far less social or herd oriented

rogerstv

You are not going to age or sex a whitetail via a hoof print. Recognizing a fawn print, yes.

Adult deer prints provide only an educated guess.

Oldtimr

Absolutely right. I never walk in the woods or fields without always looking for sign that wildlife leaves behind. It is second nature for me because I have done t for so long. Finding sign in the summer is just as important as finding it in hunting season.