Trailing Metis

Kyle Forest
Dec 8, 2025
3 min read

In the origin story of Athena, Zeus chases Metis and she evades him by changing forms from one animal to the next.

Trailing over the last few days has felt like following Metis through the snow as she morphs from one animal to the next. As you approach a new trail you see characteristics that shout out one species. You may even find yourself looking for clues to confirm your bias to this initial take. And then as you walk down the trail, the gait or snow depth/firmness or track shape changes and your brain explodes as a different animal emerges out the other end of the trail.

In the tracking intensive, we were on the road looking past a fence into a pasture and saw what looked like slides. So, I noted to myself, that looks like an otter slide (Always a dangerous practice to be naming an animal before really looking closely at the tracks and sign). In order to get to the field we had to go on the opposite side of the road and under a bridge, where we saw these 2x2 bounding tracks. I walk up to them with great confidence of clear Mustelid trail and I take my pictures....

And we walk down the trail and Metis morphs...

Into a Canid. Note the heel pad and and toe 1 dewclaw.

And finally into a Red Fox

AND, although I didn't get a photo of it, the "Otter Slides" that we saw from afar, we believe were actually Turkeys in deep snow. It seemed like their hind end was making a slide-like trough through the snow and the wind blown snow filled in many of their tracks.

We had an excellent debate in the Bearcamp Trackers about species coming down and to the left in this photo. I found the track in a thick evergreen area just before the Red Path. It was coming out of the woods in roughly the same place as I had trailed a Bobcat last winter (Always dangerous to form expectations out of past experiences). The trail was weaving through the trees in a trot. The track shape appeared to me to be round, but to others it was oval. There was a bit of an X in the negative space but everything was so snowed in, it was difficult to tell. Claws seemed absent but the snow was fluffy and the track wasn't showing these details.

Bobcats usually walk and so with every additional trotting stride, I felt less confident that I was on a Bobcat trail. When we got this track, and few others under some evergreens where the snow was less deep and more firm.

With the clear claw marks, AND large toe pads relative to the small palm pad, this Bobcat morphed into a Coyote.

2 photos back with the Coyote, you may have noticed a large slide. And here is a different picture of the slide. There was no denying it is an Otter slide, right?

Well it is (note the otter's tail)

But it was also a Bobcat... walking on top of the packed snow of the slide. In this photo of the Bobcat walk on a log, you can see the iconic Bobcat snow walk where the negative space (snow without any tracks or impression) form a snake-like serpentine pattern.

I was out hunting for deer in the snow storm and I was trying to cut a fresh track but I found nothing but old tracks after 5 miles of hiking, until I came upon this smoking hot trail. That stride is 20 inches long! A deer right?

Or just a Turkey running to catch up with their friends. I didn't take a follow up photo but you can see toe 1 pretty well!

I've seen Gray Squirrel walk pretty regularly, but would a Red Squirrel?

Well, I won't answer that today, because this is a Grouse trail. This photo shows the tail feathers touch the snow as they land and then walk off!

We were following a Fisher Trail 2x2 loping through the snow. It was easy as pie, until it disappeared. You can see the circled tracks coming into the photo and we could not find where it went from there.

Because they were perfectly in the shadow of the tree.

The moral of this blog post is: Don't just look at 1 track or even just one stretch of tracks. Follow the trail, gather lots of observations (tracks, gaits, and behavior) before you make a determination. Enjoy the unfolding story!!

Fisher Sitzmark with tail