We came across these tracks on Pipestone Bay of Basswood Lake recently. My first thought was of a massively oversized rabbit. They’re obviously too large to be a Snowshoe Hare, but they have a similar repeating pattern.
I had a hunch on the tracks’ true origin, and checked with Tom Rusch at the DNR to get his thoughts on the animal that left them behind. Tom and I agreed that they look like Canadian Lynx tracks. Tom mentioned that, like Snowshoe Hares, the two big prints at the top of the “T-shaped pattern are the hind legs of the lynx, and the smaller prints are from their front paws.
Very interesting. So then how does it walk to leave tracks in this pattern? Is there some hopping going on…or are these tracks from a lynx running?
Right. I envision the Lynx bounding through the snow moving pretty fast to make these prints.
Pretty neat lynx tracks, BG