Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's This Critter Track?

Hi,

I live in north-central Indiana, in the woods.

Went shooting today and when placing the target I saw a large track.

I shot, grabbed the camera, got pictures of the track, and took my target down.

Here is said track:







Nikki is my dog. Nikki is a mix of wolf (low content and legal), Husky, Shepherd and Retriever. She weighs 100 pounds or a bit over.

These tracks are bigger than Nikki's by 1/2" to 1". Also, these tracks are much deeper than Nikki leaves and they've been made since yesterday morning, when it rained. The photo was taken in the muddy creek bed.

Nikki runs in the fence unless she's out with me. I did not take here out yesterday as I was too busy.

It looks like the critter weighs 50 to 100 pounds more than Nikki.

Also, there are no raccoon tracks. There should be LOTS of them along there.

Supposedly there are no wolves here. However, an ex-girlfriend found a wolf cub in the city park and brought it home. Friendliest critter you'd want to meet. Figure where there's one there's more... but this was years back too.

What do you folks think of this? Anything? I'm half tempted to go lay for whatever it is tonight with an M3 Trench Knife (love that thing!) and a 1911 in case it's not friendly.

I tracked it for a while and it stuck to the creek bed. Might track it more tonight to figure out what it is. I'd like thoughts first though...

Thank you,

Josh

Bear?

Someone out there with a St. Bernard or Great Dane is my guess

Big dog.

Have at it, Rambo. I doubt the Viet-Cong have taken any prisoners, but let us know what you come up with.

dog

Just a dog. Soft, wet earth, makes for tracks that appear larger than real life.

Dog with big foot or feet. Any werewolves or Travis around there?

I would have thought that a domestic dog wouldn't have splayed toes like that.

With a very few exceptions, most are right together. The exceptions include wolf-dogs and "close-to-wolves" like Husky and German Shepherd.

This is what is stumping me for the most part.

There are coyotes out there, lots of them, but never seen a coyote track this big.

Josh

Big canine, no question.

Excellent photos, clear and with size reference.

IME domestic dogs usually have more splayed and "sloppy" tracks than wild canines like coyotes and wolves, but there are exceptions both ways. I'd call this a dog track but wolf would be possible.

I have pics of bear, wolf, coyote, cougar and domestic dog tracks for reference if I dig around in my photos for awhile.

heavy dog with big feet.

For comparison, below is a wolf track from northern BC. This wolf made a "neat footed" track with more compact toes rather than splayed. Older animals tend to splay more, however, and the animal's gait and speed also influence how much the toes splay, so that is not proof one way or the other by itself.

Squint and you can see the track better.

Great Dane

My bet too

Looks like a darn big dog or a very small black bear.

My dad's English Mastiff leaves tracks about the same. T.S.

Chupacabra, trust me on this.

A ruby crested , pecker head!












Big foot?











Big dog or a wuff
they are every where now.

Bleu Berry would leave tracks like that on the beach...


I still say Dane

Snake

BFD.

Not a bear. It's a large dog.