And I haven't seen anything like them online yet.

The animals that I know come into this space are Canada geese, crows, squirrels, a neighbor dog and cat. I've seen deer here once, but these were not deer . Oh and I've seen a raccoon once. Eagles are here, but don't land on the ground. I don't think these were coyote either, although that's not impossible.

I guess it will remain a puzzle. The animal went in an unusual way, under a deck, alongside a picture window, then down to the river edge and disappeared.

I can't reliably provide a link with this s nark phone.

Note the bobcat's track. A deer will often superimpose the 2 hind prints (or very nearly so), and thereby appear to be 3-legged.

The closest image I've seen is a fox, simply because the prints are all in a straight line, not side to side. A fox is pretty unlikely here, too. I'll ask old-timers if they have ever seen a fox.``

No joke..... best book on the subject there is.

I'm pretty good at track ID. If the tracks are in good condition, I can usually ID any animal in North America and identify their gate.

I don't know of any animal (wild or domestic) that would make the track pattern you described.

They drag their legs so there are grooves in the snow where their hooves plow through. This is in snow less than a foot deep.

interrupted by scree & cactus. If it rains, maybe you see tracks. A lot of tracks usually means does; a lone set of big prints indicate a buck on his own private trail, very faint. That's where I usually set up when hunting.

We're also not real confident of harvesting many deer this November. We've had a tough winter and there's still three feet of snow on the ground at our northern Minnesota huntling land (down from five feet, according to our neighbor). The deep snow combined with 2,500 timberwolves has really hit the white-tail population this winter in northern Minnesota.

I don't know the figures, but my observations indicate a large die-off. Had to happen. But though deer are fewer, you can still find them, and they are healthier due to less competition for food. For the last 3 seasons, the main take has been yearling bucks who the fish & game people said stood little chance of surviving a long, dry winter with depleted countryside. We let the does walk as they would spark a rebound in population. Also saw both gray and red foxes, cat squirrels, and Rio Grande turkey, so there is better variety.

Now, about that army of feral hogs at 2.5 million...

Forty-five mintes north they have more han a foot of new snow.

In addition to the wolves, we have bobcats, fishers, marten, river otters, snowshoe hare, and of course beaver.

The turkeys are about an hour south of our place but are moving north. They are eastern wild turkeys. Biologists did not think they could survive as far north as they have migrated, but they have adapted to eating aspen buds like the ruffed grouse do. They don't need acorns to survive.

What exactly is a cat squirrel? We have gray squirrels in the Twin Cities and red (fox) squirrels up north.

We do not have many feral hogs. I grew up in hog farming country in southern Minnesota. The idea of feral hogs scare the hell out of the pork producers. Most of the hog production is in confinement operations so maybe the cold winters don't allow the feral hogs to live through a winter.

The feral cats up here average 9 months of age, so hey have it tough.

Turkeys eat a lot of stuff. I missed one when I pulled the trigger as he bent down for a lizard. Scared hell out if him.

Eight inches of snow this time of year. Unbelieveable. Right now I'm visiting family in Florida where it got down to 42° last night in a rare cold wave. Black bears love it. Central FL had its 2nd bear attack on humans -- mother bear with cubs raiding trash cans in the sub burbs. The old controversy of whether or not to hunt them is starting up.

I wonder if wolves will risk attacking hogs when the latter get to Minnesota. I'm not sure what pumas think about them. Not many predators for them except us.

Attacks on humans are pretty rare. I think the last time such an attack occured was on the north shore of Lake Superior when a bear got into someone's garage and was eating out of a bag of dog food. The woman who was attacked used a rake to beat up the bear a little before he ran off. I seem to remember it being a just evicted yearling.

Just google this and your get what you want.

First tracks!