Hi, sorry to hijack the thread. Can you ID these three tracks? 3 separate animals, all in the middle of the woods in Germany? Red area around the flag is 5cm (52mm) long.
Its not a hijack, we've been international all year! IMHO:
1. Lynx
2. Domestic/Wild Cat
3. Canis sp. Probably not Wolf, maybe too big for Red Fox. Domestic dog would be my guess.
Not, of course, that I do much tracking in snow: but between one thing and another I have looked at quite a lot of real and imaged Lynx tracks lately and several Wolf tracks too. (My brother is at his in-laws in Finland just now and has texted me pix of Lynx tracks: if he sees the animal there will be trouble.)
Meantime back in England there has been fox action chez Dixon.
Last night I forgot to put a chicken leg out till late, so chucked one out of the door on my way to bed. I was settling down when I heard "Yarr, yarrr" and an answering meek "Yip, yip, yip": looking out of the window I saw not one but two foxes on the lawn, one clearly enjoying a chicken leg and the other being kept at bay by pecking order issues.
Its a secret and you mustn't tell anyone, but I'm a soft git at heart so I got up again, slipped downstairs to the fridge and took out two more chicken legs.
When I opened the door both foxes retreated ten yards or so (in opposite directions) but as I threw out first one then another morsel, their attention sharpened and they started back towards me. Our regular friend with the black smudge on the front of his ear and a nice white tip to his brush basically trotted straight in, grabbed the new snack and departed stage right. The other fox had a bit of a think, took an indirect route across next door's lawn up close to their house and then made a diagonal approach (thus facing partly away from me) to take the other drumstick and depart back left.
Everybody happy, I went back to bed and slept the sleep of the just.
Tonight Maz called me from the front of the house where she was taking the night air to say that a fox was about twenty yards away waiting patiently. I quickly extracted tonight's ration from the fridge and put it out. Foxy came straight in and grabbed it before I was ready with the camera (unsporting!) but only retreated to the nearby green where Maz had spotted him. Again I went for the resupply option and quickly settled down camera at the ready.
The fox approached to within a few yards, saw me in the hall, paused, gathered his courage and trotted in for his reward while the camera flash fired three times. Once again, everybody happy. Pix later.
John