AnimalsTracks

Now, let's find out what happened here...

There is a lot to tell about this little bit of dirt. It's pretty trampled but we can get valuable clues from the different tracks here. First let's give you a big start by telling you that the long line is an alligators tail dragging.

Let's find out how big the alligator was.

At the bottom of the photo is a man's boot track. The boot track was the size of an average man which is about a foot or 12 inches long. Now you have a measurement to use against all the other sign you see here.

You can get a small indication of this gators size by the track right at the boot. This track is pretty deep for sand and it's more defined. This is a heavy alligator. The track is also at least 3 or 4 inches wide even with the small wiggle (shown by the ripple in the dirt) and it was deep. The tail was bigger AND heavier.

If you scan your eyes from this spot on up the gators track you'll notice that it gets lighter and wiggles more. As the gator entered the edge of the brush and started down the bank his tail lifted. He also wiggled more as his front feet and then his back feet started down the bank. You can see this in the widening of the track as it moves up in the photo.

Before we go on to more about the alligator it's self let's look at the other track near the boot print. These are raccoon tracks. They're the raccoons front paws. His back paws are on this photo as well. They're the smaller more rounded tracks you might see in the photo if you have a good eye. In this sandy soil you might mistake the back paws for dog prints. Knowing that raccoons are out at night and not during the day will help place the time that the gator made his track. You can see that the raccoons track pushed dirt into the tail track so had to have been made after the gator made his. You'll also notice that this racoon has walked inside the gators tail track.

"Ok", you're saying now, "What about the gator? Where are HIS foot prints?".

Well, you've spotted the humans boot print. And working from there along the bottom of the photo and towards the right you see the gators tail track, then the raccoons footprint overlapping the gators tail track, and right after that is the gators paw print. Yes that is the gators paw print and yes, if you compare it to the humans print, it IS a big paw. It is also much heavier than a full grown man as it makes a much deeper print. This was a very big gator.

And now that you can recognize this gators paw print you can see it all the way up the photo on either side of the tail track.

I think this was one alligator we were glad not to meet!

Having several tracks to study helps identify the animal that made the track. Often you can see how the animal walked by studying two or more tracks. Here the animal's one foot nearly overlapped the other print. Cat's walk with one foot nearly inside the other foot so this has a good chance of being a cat track. The toes without nails is another clue. The track was pretty detailed for a track in sandy soil but it was clear that it was a bobcat track.