Context

Location: Ossipee, NH

Habitat: small frozen pond next to mixed hardwoods

Month: December, 2024

Substrate: Soft moist snow, dusting, slight melting and refreeze

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Questions:

1. How many times did an animal walk through this photo?

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4 animals all going from left to right in the photo. Each trail is indicated by a red number.

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2. At least 3 of these trails are made by 1 species, what species is it?

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Trails 1, 3, and 4 are all definitively Northern Raccoon. You can tell because it has a distinctive extreme overstep walk. Check out this video to see how they move. When tracking you can tell it's a raccoon because their larger hind feet are next to but usually just ahead or behind their smaller front feet. I suspect trail 2 is a bobcat in an overstep walk... but I'm not sure.

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