Identifying tracks in the snow

By Aaron Horrell

The morning after our recent January snow was bright and cold. My wife and I walked with our dog. I took this photo mainly to show the difference between a domesticated dog's tracks and the tracks of a red fox.

I realized the tracks made by my wife would show perfect perspective in relationship to the size of the fox tracks. In the photo you can see the dog tracks going from the bottom center and curving to the left crossing the human tracks. Domestic dogs walk in a rather erratic manner.

Along the right side of the photo you see tracks that are in a mostly straight line. These are the tracks of a red fox that walked this area a short time earlier. I know it is a red fox because I often see red foxes in this area. I also investigated the fox tracks closely to be sure they were from a fox and not a cat. I am including a closeup photo of one of the fox's tracks to show that the fox track by itself looks very much like a dog's track and is much more linear than the track left by a cat.