Tracks and Tracking in the Winter ©

 

Photo by the Author.

Excerpts from A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes, page 271 and page 296.

A lot of you enjoyed my article, “Who Came To Visit Me Last Night…” found HERE, and, “Who could it be?” found HERE.  To help me identify the tracks in those two articles, I used A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes.  Now, tracks and tracking in the winter can be a lot of fun; but just like you have to learn how to read, to make sense of those black marks on that white paper, you have to learn how to track, to make sense of what you see in the snow.  Since when you are walking in the wilderness, you often only see a fleeting glimpse of an animal or bird; but their tracks will last for days, by following their tracks you can go back in time and follow them throughout their day! 

I am a student of tracking, and by no means am I an expert: I don’t think if you ever get to “expert”, I think that you just practice for the rest of your life, like a doctor.  One of the books that I used to begin my practice, and which I still study today, is A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes.

 

An excerpt from A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes, page 274.

Now, tracking in the summer can be a bit difficult, especially if it has been dry; but in the winter, it is a different story.  Winter is the best time to begin your study of tracking, not because the tracks are different in the winter than they are in the summer, spring or fall, but because there are more of them.  In the fall, spring or summer you will only find tracks in muddy spots, near the water’s edge, or in other “track-traps”.  In the winter the entire surface of the ground is a track-trap!  So, winter is the perfect time to get out and learn how to track and Donald W. Stokes’, A Guide to Nature in Winter is the perfect textbook, so get a copy and get out there and start reading that snow, before it and the winter, all melt away!

 

An excerpt from A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes, page 272.

But you ask, “Bandanaman why should I get this book and not some other one?  There are a lot of books on tracking and tracking in the winter?”  You are right and that is a good question, there are a lot of books out there on tracking: however, here is what I liked about A Guide to Nature in Winter.

This book is eight different field guides, all rolled up into one book.  So, with this book you don’t only get a book on tracking, you get a book on snow, winter trees, insects, birds and abandoned nests and much more.

Each of the field guides make up a single chapter and each chapter is divided into three parts; a general information section; a section with an identification key, to help you identify what you see in the winter wilderness; and once you have discovered the name of the thing that you saw, a natural history section with detail information to tell you all about it.  A Guide to Nature in Winter is written to specifically for the northeast and north-central parts of the United States and the southeast and south-central parts of Canada, but much of the information can apply to other areas just as easily. 

However, today, I am only talking about the chapter on tracking.  The field guide on tracking is general enough that you can use it outside of the northern United States or southern Canada, at least for common creatures, like squirrels, rabbits, dogs, etc.; and the basics of two-four-or-five toes, straddle and stride can be used in any environment to help you identify an animal by its tracks.

 

An excerpt from A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes, page 297, showing one of the illustrations by Deborah Prince.

Also, the pen and ink illustrations by Deborah Prince are fantastic and there are 485 of them!  They will make your study of tracking easier and much more fun.

Here are some excerpts from the chapter on tracking, found in A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes, to whet your appetite. 

 

Excerpts from A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes, page 271 to 273.

 

Excerpts from A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald W. Stokes, page 280 to 283.

If you would like to begin your study and practice of winter tracking before your copy of A Guide to Nature in Winter comes in and before all the snow melts away, a section of the field guide on tracking can be found HERE, courtesy of Colorado University and Tim Kittel.

Another excerpt from a guide to tracking in the snow can be found HERE, it is from A Field Guide to Tracking Animals in the Snow, by Louise Forrest, 1988, and is also courtesy of Colorado University and Tim Kittel.  However, a discussion about A Field Guide to Tracking Animals in the Snow, is a for another day and another article.

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 and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube, and 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!

Sources

Kittel, Tim; “Winter Mammalogy Field Day”, [© 2019 T. Kittel], https://culter.colorado.edu/~kittel/WinterEcology_Mammals.html, accessed 1/18/20

Stokes, Donald W.; A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America, [Little Brown & Company, New York, New York, 1976] p. 271-296

Who could it be? ©

 

My apologies to Zaboomafoo, but my children loved this show and the mystery animal song, when they were little: I couldn’t help myself.  Picture by the Author.

 

The mystery animal tracks found on our hike, picture by the Author

 

A close-up of the mystery animal tracks found on our hike, picture by the Author

I was on a hike with my son, when we came across some tracks made by a mystery animal.  They wandered along a rivulet, near a drainage pipe from a pond and then bounded across a dirt road.  We all guessed what mystery animal might have made them, with one of the people who were with me, speculating that they must have been made by a martin, because of the bounding nature of the tracks, where they crossed the road.  I didn’t think so, because I could see the drag mark of a tail, however, I did not know what the mystery animal was either.

So, I took some pictures to study when I got home, and we got on with our hike.

When I got home, I looked at the pictures I had taken.  The more I looked at the tracks and the tail mark and thought about where I had found the tracks, the more I thought that a muskrat must have made them.  However, to be sure, I got out my copy of Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks and my copy of A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America and did some research.

The mystery animal tracks found on our hike, explained.  Picture by the Author.

 

Figure 88, p 176, Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks, by Olaus J.Murie

 

The mystery animal tracks found on our hike, explained.  Picture by the Author.

The tracks and the tail marks certainly looked like the illustrations in Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks.  To be sure I measured the straddle of the tracks and consulted Donald Stokes’, A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America (for more on the importance of straddle in identifying tracks, see “Who Came To Visit Me Last Night…”, HERE).  The stride of the tracks was about four inches long, but more importantly the straddle was three and a half inches wide, both of these measurements are average for muskrats.

 

A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America, p. 292

The mystery animal tracks found on our hike, explained.  Picture by the Author.

So I can confidently say that the mystery animal, who I did see, was an ondatra zibethica, or North American Muskrat.

 

p 175, Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks, by Olaus J.Murie

Sources

Murie, Olaus J., Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks, [The Easton Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1974]

Stokes, Donald W.; A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America, [Little Brown & Company, New York, New York, 1976] p. 281-287

Who Came To Visit Me Last Night…©

The size of the tracks, their gait and stride length, but most importantly their straddle can tell you a lot about who made the tracks.  A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America, Donald W. Stokes

Do you like forensic crime shows?  What about detective stories?  I do, and here is one that took place in my driveway.

It was early spring, it had snowed that morning, stopping at first light, leaving about ¼ inch of snow behind.  I let my cat out the back door at 5:30 am, it was overcast and still dark outside, and the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon.  A few minutes later, my cat was back at the door, meowing loudly to come in.  When I opened the back door, he was already standing on the second step and when I opened the screen door, he charged in as if all of the hounds of hell were hot on his trail!  Definitely not usual behavior for him, he usually wants to stay out for thirty minutes or more and he usually waits inside the open shed, that we call a garage, to be let in. 

It was trash day, a Monday, and I was outside at first light to drag the wheelie-bins up my driveway to the street, when I realized I had, had visitors last night.  Who could they be, I wondered, who had left their calling cards stamped up and down my driveway?  What were they doing? Was it a cat, a coyote, a neighbor’s dog…?  Since, I had to be at work soon, I had to be happy with taking some pictures, tossing my Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks, into my workbag and hopping into my car.

 

The first set of tracks on my back step.  Picture by the Author.

The first set of tracks I found were on the top of my back steps and were simple to identify.  They were 1-1/3 inches long and wide and I could tell right away that they were cat tracks.  In fact, I could tell that the cat that had left the tracks was an overweight, orange tabby tomcat, who is about five years old.  This last bit was a cheat, though, because when I had opened the door to let my cat, Copper, into the house I had seen him leave the tracks on the back step.

 

My cat Copper. Picture by the Author.

All joking aside, how did I know right away that these were cat tracks?  Several things distinguish cat tracks from dog tracks.  The first clue is whether there are claw marks or not.  Canine tracks usually display claw marks, while cat tracks do not.  Canine tracks tend to be oval, and are longer from heel to toe than they are wide; while cat tracks are round and are as long as they are wide.  Additionally, cat tracks often display a leading toe, which is a toe that sticks out further than the rest, while with dog tracks the two front toes are side by side.  Also, the heel pads of cats are larger than the small, two lobed, triangular pads of dogs and the bottom of a cat’s three lobed heel pad looks like an “M”.  The last clue is whether an “X” drawn between the first and fourth toe pads, cuts through the heel pad or not.  If the “X”, when drawn, does not touch the rear pad, then it is a dog track, while if it does cut through the rear pad, it is a cat track. 

 

Cat tracks explained. Picture by the Author.

 

Figure 54 b & e Domestic Cat Tracks, p 112, Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks, by Olaus J.Murie

 

The second set of tracks. Picture by the Author.

The second set of tracks, close up. Picture by the Author.

The next set of tracks were also cat tracks, although this time, I didn’t see who made them.  At first I thought that these might have been made by a small dog or fox, but the more I looked at them the more I realized they were cat tracks, since they didn’t show any claw marks, and were about as long as they are wide with a large heel pad.

 

Tracks explained. Picture by the Author.

 

Tracks explained, close up. Picture by the Author.

These tracks are about 1-1/3 inches long and wide and they show a stride of about 10-1/3 inches and a straddle, the distance from outside of one track to the outside of the opposite track, of 3-11/16 inches.  Cats, on average, have a track one inch wide, a straddle of three inches and a stride of six to eight inches, so with a stride of just over 10 inches, this cat must have been moving fast.

 

The third set of tracks. Picture by Author.

 

The third set of tracks, close up. Picture by Author.

The third set of tracks that I found were a little more challenging.  At first, I thought my third visitor had, had a bounding gait, and with prints that were 1-3/16 inches long for the front foot and 1-9/16 inches long for the back foot, it definitely looked like my visitor was a member of the weasel family, maybe even a marten.  Martens are not common where I live, although I have seen one within four miles of my house, so they are a possibility.  However, the more I looked at the tracks, the less they looked like marten tracks and the more they looked like skunk tracks.  The straddle of a marten is 3-1/2 to 4 inches wide, and the straddle of my visitor was only 3-3/16 inches wide, so it was too narrow to be a marten.  The straddle of a skunk averages 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches.  Now, skunks are common and they had been waking up from their winter naps that week, but skunks are waddlers, not bounders!  I was stumped, however when I went back to the photos I realized that my visitor hadn’t been bounding, because I could clearly see a back foot placed next to a front foot.  It had been a skunk running!

 

The third set of tracks, explained. Picture by Author.

 

The third set of tracks, close up, explained. Picture by Author.

 

Figure 37a Striped Skunk tracks, p 78, Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks, by Olaus J.Murie

All of this was confusing; I wondered what story these tracks were trying to say.  I spent a couple of weeks looking at the photos, considering and researching and here is what I think happened. 

A woman, who had been trying to catch a stray cat, had put a live trap into my shed, unfortunately she had caught a cat, the wrong cat, and when the trap had sprung, cat food had been flung all over the floor of my shed.

Before it had snowed that night, I believe that a skunk had gone into my shed to eat the spilled cat food, and had then spent the night inside my shed, while it snowed outside.  Later, just before I let my cat out, a stray cat had come around the back corner of my shed, from my back yard, and had entered the shed, following his nose and the smell of the spilled cat food.  Just then, I had opened the back door and let out my cat, Copper, who ran straight for the shed, as he does every morning.  There he met the skunk and the other cat, turned and charged for the safety of the back door, meowing for all he was worth.  The skunk and the stray cat, both deciding that “discretion is the better part of valor”, made for the front yard: the skunk galloping down the driveway and the stray cat loping along behind; both leaving tracks for me to find later.

The morale of the story is, if there is one: when the cat trap spills cat food all over the inside of your shed, sweep it up right away!  Actually, this is an important lesson, since spilled cat food can attract all sorts of scavengers, which in my area could include stray cats and dogs, foxes and both the little western coyotes and the much larger eastern coyotes: the last two who would have loved to add an overweight, indoor/outdoor house cat to their menu.  Just something to think about…

Sources:

Murie, Olaus J., Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide: Animal Tracks, [The Easton Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1974]

Stokes, Donald W.; A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America, [Little Brown & Company, New York, New York, 1976] p. 281-287

A Cougar Went Walking

 

Mountain lion print found near Red House, Allegheny State Park, NY during November 2017.  Picture by the Author

The truth and the cats are out there…Do you believe?

I grew up hearing stories about mountain lions in western New York: when I was little, I remember my Father telling me a story that took place when he was a young boy, shortly after World War II.  Some cousins of my Father’s foster family, who lived outside of Forestville, New York, told him about a panther that had been heard, at night, in the hills, south of the village, and the hunt that took place looking for it.  Of course, they didn’t find an eastern mountain lion, because as everyone knows, cougars, catamounts, painters, panthers, or just plain mountain lions, which are all names for the same animal, and had been extinct since the early years of the 20^th century on the east coast of North America.

Fast forward to 2008, it was a warm early fall day and we had decided to take a trip to the “Hanging Bog”, which is a large beaver pond, in the hills, near Rushford, New York.  We thought it would be a good day to do some canoeing and exploring and my youngest son, who was four at the time, had never been in a canoe before.  We canoed to shore on the far side of the lake and as I stepped out, I saw “it”.  “It” was a large paw print, the size of a baseball, without any claw marks, that was just starting to fill with water.  Someone had watched us bring the canoe to the shore and that someone was a cougar.  I quickly scanned the trees around the landing, to see if there was a large cat above me in the branches.  I loosened the small axe that I always carry when I wander in the woods, which was under my belt, in the small of my back.  I didn’t see the cougar, just a lonely paw print rapidly filling up with water, at the edge of swampy lake.  Oh, and of course, just as these things always go, I didn’t have a camera with me.

Mountain lion print found near Red House, Allegheny State Park, NY during November 2017.  Picture by the Author

 It was a sunny, early November day in 2017, and we had decided to take a hike near Red House, in Allegheny State Park, in southwestern New York State.  We were hiking along the top of a ridge that separated two narrow, steep-walled valleys with small streams down their centers.  It had snowed the night before, only about a quarter of an inch, and it was still below freezing, although the sky was clear and the sun was bright, when I saw “it” again.  Again, “it” was a single, large paw print without any claw marks, boldly stamped in the snow, as if a large cat had stepped over the path.  This time I had a camera, and I took a picture, thankfully, just before a woman with a small herd of yappy dogs came around the bend of the trail and trampled all of the evidence. 

In 2008, no one believed that I saw, what I had seen, because of course, there are no cougars left on the east coast of North America, except in the very south of Florida, which is a long way away from rural western New York.  However, I knew what I had seen.

In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that there are no native populations of mountain lions east of the Mississippi, except in Florida, and any that are seen, are escaped or released pets.  The native eastern mountain lions, as a subspecies (puma concolor couguar), was considered to have gone extinct in the early years of the 20^th century. 

Shortly after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services announcement regarding the extinction of the native eastern mountain lions, came the news in 2011, that a young male cougar that had been hit by a car on Wilbur Cross Parkway, in Milford, Connecticut, only 70 miles from New York City.  Scientists, using DNA tests, determined that this cougar was from South Dakota, and he had travelled more than 1,800 miles, through Michigan, into Canada, crossing back into New York State near the western edge of the Adirondacks, before travelling southeast to his fateful encounter with an SUV, on the parkway.

After, the South Dakota mountain lion was killed on the parkway in Connecticut, in 2011; migratory western mountain lions were added to the mix.  Officially, there is not a breeding population of mountain lions east of the Mississippi and today, if you see a mountain lion in the woods, you have seen a migratory western lion or an escaped or released pet. 

Tracks and Scat

Most likely, you will never see a mountain lion in the woods; however, you might see evidence of its passing, either tracks or scat.  So how can you tell if those tracks you have found belong to a mountain lion?  The first clue is whether there are claw marks or not.  Canine tracks usually display claw marks, while cat tracks do not; also canine tracks tend to be oval and are longer from heel to toe than they are wide.  Additionally, cat tracks often display a leading toe, which is a toe that sticks out further than the rest, while with dog tracks the two front toes are side by side.  The second thing to look for is the size of the track and the size of plantar or heel pad; mountain lion tracks are quite large, up to five inches in diameter, although on average they are closer to three inches in diameter.  The average male mountain lion will leave tracks that are four inches wide, while the average female mountain lion will leave tracks that are up to three and a half inches wide.  In addition, you might be able to determine the sex of the mountain lion by the size of its plantar pad; the average adult female mountain lions have a plantar pad that is less than two inches wide, while the average male mountain lion will have a plantar pad that is greater than two inches in width.  The heel pads of cats are larger than the small, two lobed, triangular pads of dogs and the three lobed pad looks like an “M”.  And, the last clue is whether an “X” drawn between the first and fourth toe pad, crosses through the heel pad or not.  If the “X”, when drawn, does not cross over the rear pad then it is a dog track, while if it does cut through the rear pad, it is a cat track. 

(L) Coyote track, actual size, Animal Tracks: Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide, Figure 46, p. 95 and (R) Mountain lion track, scaled to actual size, Figure 52, p. 110.  Note the lack of claw marks on the Mountain lion track and how an X drawn between the first and fourth toe pad, crosses through the heel pad.

 

Mountain lion print found near Red House, Allegheny State Park, NY during November 2017.  Picture by the Author

So, I used these tests on the track that I found near Red House in November 2017: unfortunately, because the leaf under the rear pad makes it difficult to see the outline of the heel, this isn’t the best track to analyze.  However, the size, round shape and the absence of any claw marks, makes me believe that this is not a dog’s footprint and is most likely a mountain lion’s paw print.

 

Animal Tracks: Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide, Figure 57, a. Tracks in mud; b, c, d., Walking or trotting gates; e. Mountain lion wallowing in snow; f. Tracks in snow, showing foot drags; g. Leaping gait in snow, showing tail marks; p. 118-119

Instead of tracks, you might find scat.  If you do find scat, you will notice that it is full of hair and bits of bone, however, since members of the cat family tend to cover their dung, scat is not often found.  If found, the scats from large cats can be hard to distinguish from those of dogs or coyotes.  Cat scat is more segmented, by constrictions, than those of dogs are, but the best clue would be that scat is covered or that there are claw marks surrounding the dung pile.

 

Animal Tracks: Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide, Figure 53, Mountain lion scat, p. 111

Mountain Lion Facts

·      Mountain lions have a wide range throughout the western United States and both their population and range are increasing.  They can easily travel 20 to 30 miles a day, hunting an eating along the way.

·      A mountain lions range depends on the amount of available food and can be from 10 square miles to 370 square miles.

·      Mountain lions weigh an average of 130 to 140 pounds, with male lions weighing an average between 115 to 160 pounds and female lions weighing between 75 and 105 pounds.

·      Mountain lions live on average 12 years in the wild and in captivity have lived to 25 years.

·      Mountain lions are solitary animals and are seldom seen, they prefer remote, wooded areas: searchers generally have to content themselves scat, tracks and the remains of kills and food caches.

·      Mountain lions need eight to ten pounds of meat a day to survive and experts estimate that a mountain lion kills one deer every nine to fourteen days.  In general, mountain lions prefer deer, when they are not eating deer; their diet includes elk, porcupine, small mammals, livestock or pets. 

·      Most mountain lions will avoid a confrontation, so keep your distance and make sure it has an open escape route.  If a mountain lion is angry or anxious, it will crouch down and thrash its tail, stare at you and keep its body low to the ground.  Immediately before an attack, a mountain lion’s ears will flatten down against its head and its rear legs will pump.

In the end, does it matter whether the lion you saw, or whose tracks you found, was a migrating western mountain lion, an escaped or released pet, or a relic of the original eastern mountain lion population?  Do you know what to do if you have a close-range, surprise encounter with one, who seems angry or anxious?  Worse, do you know what to do if a mountain lion appears to be following you at a distance and staring intently at you: in short, it is stalking you?

 

A portion of the photo titled “seen mountain biking at Skeggs today”, by Steve Jurvetson

How to Avoid an Encounter

·      Since mountain lions are nocturnal, be especially cautious when moving around at night.

·      To avoid an encounter with a mountain lion, make noise so that the mountain lion knows that humans are in the area and hike in groups.

If You Encounter a Mountain Lion

Most mountain lions will avoid a confrontation with humans, so stay calm.  If the lion is angry or anxious, try to identify why it is upset.  Are you between a female and her kits?  Are you near its den or its kill? 

·      With mountain lions, it is all about being seen as prey or being seen as a threat

·      Always and at all times maintain eye contact, while you slowly back away giving the lion an avenue to escape.  Do not bend over, as you will lose eye contact and you will look like a four legged prey animal.

·      Never turn your back and never EVER run away from a lion!  If you do, you will trigger the cat’s predatory instincts. 

·      Stand tall, wave your arms or hold your coat open, yell and throw sticks and stones at it.  If you are in a group, stand side by side so that you appear bigger.  If you have children, put them behind you or hold onto them.

If You Are Attacked

·      If you have bear spray, use it.  If someone is being attacked and you have bear spray, spray both the lion and the person being attacked if necessary.

·      Do not play dead, fight back!  Playing dead means that you will end up dead for real.  Fight back because 75% of those attacked by mountain lions survive.  Mountain lions kill people by biting the back of the neck and snapping the spine, by biting through the skull, or by biting the throat and suffocating their victim.  If you are bitten, stick your finger into the lion’s eye. 

·      If you are with a group, fight the mountain lion as a group.

If You Are Being Stalked

·      If a mountain lion is following you at a distance and watching you intently, it is probably trying to determine if you are or are not prey.

·      Stand tall, wave your arms or hold your coat open, yell and throw sticks and stones at it.  If you are in a group, stand side by side so that you appear bigger.  If you have children, put them behind you or hold onto them. 

·      Make sure that you have scared it away before, immediately leaving and reporting the situation to the proper authorities.

Sources

Catskill Mountaineer, “Cougar Tracks in Kaaterskill Clove” http://www.catskillmountaineer.com/forums/phpBB-3.0.5/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=254, Accessed 3/27/19

Ferris, Jaime; “Washington Talk Features a Connecticut Mountain Lion Believer” [County Times, February 10, 2012] http://www.countytimes.com/entertainment/washington-talk-features-a-connecticut-mountain-lion-believer/article_6a7bddd0-f535-59df-9e24-90afefe108dd.html, Accessed 3/26/19

Gabbey, Amber; “Call Of The Wild: How To Avoid Feral Animal Encounters” [American Survival Guide, December 11, 2011] https://www.asgmag.com/survival-skills/call-of-the-wild-how-to-avoid-feral-animal-encounters/, Accessed 4/2/19

Jurvetson, Steve “seen mountain biking at Skeggs today” https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/442807351/, Accessed 4/11/19

Keiper, Lauren; “Mountain lion killed in Connecticut prowled east from S. Dakota” [Reuters, July 27, 2011] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mountainlion/mountain-lion-killed-in-connecticut-prowled-east-from-s-dakota-idUSTRE76Q5ZE20110727, Accessed 3/26/19

Lancaster, Laura; “Fight or Flight?” [American Survival Guide, December 2015, ] p 77-81

LiveOutdoors, “How to Identify a Mountain Lion Track”, https://www.liveoutdoors.com/recreation/236133-identify-mountain-lion-tracks/#/slide/1, Accessed 3/27/19

Read more at https://www.liveoutdoors.com/recreation/236133-identify-mountain-lion-tracks/#GyQ5JsdvD0hrSrdx.99, Accessed 3/27/19

Merritt, Pamela; “Adirondack Panthers: Then And Now” [October 26, 2016] https://www.saranaclake.com/blog/2016/10/adirondack-panthers-then-and-now, Accessed 3/26/19

Murie, Olaus J., Animal Tracks: Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide, [Easton Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1974] p.110-111, 118-121

Seely, Hart; “Wild cougar killed in Connecticut will likely spark Upstate sightings of big cats”, [Syracuse Post Standard, July 28, 2011] https://www.syracuse.com/news/2011/07/wild_cougar_killed_in_connecti.html, Accessed 3/26/19