Tracking at Work ... Wait, What!?©

  

An opossum hind foot track?  As a comparison my knife is 5 inches, 12.7 centimeters, long.  Photograph by the Author.

Perhaps an opossum front foot track?  Photograph by the Author.

Animal tracking isn’t just a wilderness activity anymore, what with so many animals, many of whom that would have been scarce or almost extinct thirty years ago, moving into urban and semi-urban areas.  Sometimes you can use your tracking skills at work.  In fact, the other day I was doing a preliminary inventory on some heavy equipment in a warehouse in Buffalo, NY; that is where I found some tracks that I thought were opossum, didelphis virginiana, tracks¹.  But because the concrete dust on the splash guards of the equipment, was so thin and fine, the tracks didn’t quite look like the opossum tracks that I was used to seeing in the mud or snow, so I hit the books and here is what I found...

 

Opossum tracks in the mud, with the front footprint on the center left and the hind footprint on the center right of the photo (and with vole tracks near the bottom).  Photograph taken by Michael Lensi, 2003, HERE.

From page 10 of Roger Tory Peterson, Animal Tracks: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition.

So, when you find what you think are opossum tracks, an easy way to identify them is to look for the opposable “thumb” that is found on the hind foot.  Opossums have an opposable thumb on the back of their rear feet, which allows them to grasp and hold branches like a human hand.  The tracks of their hind feet show four toes with claws on the front of the foot and one toe without a claw, pointing to the inside, at the rear of the foot.  The tracks of their front feet show five toes with claws at the front of the foot.  You can also look for a drag line, which the opossum’s tail leaves in the dirt, dust or snow between the tracks, either as short, alternate side drag marks or as a long, sinuous drag mark.  An opossum’s stride is from 5-½ to 11 inches, or 14 to 28 centimeters.

 

A North American Opossum with winter coat, photographed by Cody Pope, HERE.

So, the tracks that I found in the dust on the splash guard were indeed opossum, didelphis virginiana, tracks, since I could see the four front toes and the “thumb” of the rear foot and the five toes of the front foot. 

 

Closeups of the footprints, photograph by the Author.

And now we know who comes out to play at night, in the warehouse, around the heavy equipment.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ The Virginia opossum, didelphis virginiana, which is also known as the North American opossum; in the United States it is often simply called a possum.

 

Sources

 

Opossum Society of the United States; “Opossum Footprints”, [© 2002 -2014 Opossum Society of the United States], https://opossumsocietyus.org/general-opossum-information/opossum-prints/, accessed December 17, 2020

 

Roger Tory Peterson, Animal Tracks: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, (The Easton Press: Norwalk Connecticut, [1985]) page 10-11

 

Wikimedia, “Opossum_and_vole_tracks_in_mud”, Michael Lensi, Uploaded to Wikimedia, September 16, 2004,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opossum_and_vole_tracks_in_mud.JPG, accessed December 17, 2020

 

Wikimedia, “936px-Opossum_2, North American Opossum with winter coat”, by Cody Pope, February 21, 2007, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opossum_2.jpg, accessed December 17, 2020