Track of the Week 19

You may have noticed that I have been missing a week a couple of times recently. I'm starting to run a little low on motivation and stored up track pictures and my camera is trying to make it to the shop (just saw to day that it was marked as "Undeliverable as Addressed"). But I had a request to keep it going for awhile longer, so I'll see what I can do.

Setting: Central Idaho, summer 2008

1. Who made these?

Pocket Gopher, based on the range maps in Peterson's Mammals, probably northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides).

2. What are they (and how were they made)?

Possom59 got it right in the comments. These are eskers formed when the gopher makes tunnels in the snow and then back fills them to get rid of the the dirt from its underground tunnelling.

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Track of the Week 18

Setting: Mid January 2009 in the Snoqualmie valley. There was great tracking in the silt deposited by the flood.

1. What species? (At least three if you look close)

These are some of the nicest weasel (Mustela sp.) tracks I have seen in person. Because of the size I think they are short-tailed (M. erminea) rather than long-tailed (M. frenata) which also occur in our region. I'm not sure if there are morphological features that distinguish the species. From what I have heard it can be difficult to distinguish them even with specimens in the lab (without the use of DNA).

To me, weasel tracks sometimes look like tiny dog tracks, other times like rat tracks. In this case, if you look closely though you can see five toes showing (clearer on the right side). Often, as is the case here, I don't see much in the way of heel pads showing up.

The smaller trail going across the picture is vole (Microtus sp.) Same sub-family as the muskrat last week. Note the thin finger like toes, also that it is moving in a trot which is a common gait for this group of rodents and unusual for other common rodents in this area.

In the lower right corner there is one track that appears to be the hind track of a smaller rodent, perhaps a deer mouse.

Also there are at least two trails left by invertebrates, perhaps earth worms.

2. What gaits?

The weasel is moving in a 2x2 lope and the vole is moving in a straddle trot (a trot with the hind feet falling outside of the front).

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Track of the Week 17

Setting: Middle of December a couple of years ago, down by the river near Monroe Washington.

1. What gait?

This is a walking gait. Note the even distance between sets of tracks, the relatively wide trail, and relatively short stride.

2. Who?

These are muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) tracks. Muskrats are the largest members of the vole family. Like other voles it has long narrow toes. Like most rodents it has three closely grouped middle toes on its hind feet with two toes out to the side and four more evenly spread out toes on the front feet.

3. Which feet?

Each set of tracks is a hind/front pair. The hinds show the middle three toes strongly and, on the first two particularly, just barely show the side toes or any heel pad. The front feet are just beyond the hinds so the muskrat was moving in an understep walk.

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Track of the Week 16

Setting:
This was taken last winter at the farm in southern Idaho.

1. Who is headed from bottom to top?

This is a relatively large bird with a game bird style track (with a short hallux and no significant webbing). It is a pheasant. I think chickens have similar tracks, but there aren't any chickens at that farm.

2. Who is headed from left to right?

These smallish, round tracks were made by one of the farm cats.

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Track of the Week 15

Setting: Mid April 2008 Sitka, Alaska. These tracks were moving parallel to the water along the beach.

1. What species?

These are fairly classic mustelid tracks with the 5 bulbous(ish) toes in an arc like that and heel pad with one "wing" larger. Sometimes they look a lot like canine tracks, particularly if the small toe 1 doesn't show up. Based on the size and location we can narrow down to mink (Neovison vison)

2. What Gait?

It is moving in a lope, notice the somewhat larger 1st and 3rd tracks as well as how the 2nd and 4th have more space between the toes and heel pad. This indicates that the feet fall in a front hind front hind pattern.

3. Which feet are which?

As mentioned in the answer to question 2, the feet fall in a front hind front hind pattern. Lefts and rights can be determined by which side of the center line the feet fall, also because the lowest toe is the inner toe - assuming all 5 toes show up, the inner toe is a little difficult to see in the first two tracks.

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