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NOT a Cat print 7-8 cm wide (more photos below) 20110201
Image by Kenneth Cole Schneider
Found this large track along the side of the unpaved portion of the 19400 block of Miramar Parkway, Miramar, Broward County Florida on February 1, 2011. I measured the width by comparing the tracks to marks on my lens hood. They were about 7.5 cm (3 inches) wide and about the same length-- the photo angle foreshortens them a bit. The tracks crossed over the road, but because of all the coarse gravel they were indistinct. The animal appeared to spend some time loafing in an area aboout 5x10 feet on the south side of the road, as there were multiple tracks and overprints. I did not have a wide-angle lens with me, so I took these with the macro setting on my 720 mm telephoto system, from a distance of about 5 feet. Tracks are quite round and do not show nail prints. Toe imprints are rounded and there are 3 large and one smaller toe (to the right) in this impresssion, which does not appear to be a double register. Much too large for the Bocats that I have seen and photographed here. I hesitate to call them panther tracks, but they do suggest that this may be the case. No Florida Panthers have been reported in this area, to my knowledge, though there is an immediately adjacent Water Conservation Area that consists of recovering Everglades habitat. It is separated only by US 27 from the Everglades Preserve that does provide a continuous corridor to areas known to be inhabited by panthers. I talked to Florida FWC and they recommended that any panther sightings in this neighborhood should be reported to (561) 625-5122.
The FWC agent looked at the above photo and advised:
I looked at your image and at the angle presented it is hard to tell what type animal the track came from. Do you have any images that are taken from above so that we could look at the toe alignment? If there is a water source nearby, have you considered visiting the area to see if tracks are present there?
Right now, the identification of the track is hard to do. We would be happy to look at other images.
Thank you for contacting FWC with your information.
My reply:
I did walk along the edge of the lake, but there are no mud flats. Since it has not rained lately, all the puddles were dry and hard-baked. The tracks, which were in fine dusty sand on the shoulder of the gravel road, were almost obliterated by the high winds that arose this afternoon. Please take a look at the photo I took at 2:15 PM-- although now much more shallow and its features are not brought out by shadows because of the high sun, I can determine that they were actually about 8 cm (over 3 inches) wide. See my photos on FLICKR (link)
Cats Whiskers
Image by Cross Duck
We do not actually drink beer or ale, but this brew made a wonderful ingredient in a steak and ale pie. View On Black
Raw image imported using Pentax Photo Laboratory and picture created using Serif PhotoPlus X3 software.
