Animal Tracking: Bobcat... Coyote or Fox?

Finding tracks by a canine is pretty common, and usually easy to identify because their claws show up in the print above the toes...

the deal is, bobcat prints are very similar to that of a coyote, dog or even a fox --->
They all have 4 toes and a pad underneath, the main indicator that separates the bobcat/large feline from the canine is the claws that show up. It is rare I find a bobcat print (maybe once in my life) and the pics i took here in my muddy bog don't appear to have claws. But what do ya'll think? Bobcat? Canine? (Or maybe the infamous and disbelieved local mountain lion?)

Pictured in the black and white drawing below are a rendering of bobcat prints::::




The mammal print above is a coyote and the one below is a common fox. You can see both leave distinct claw marks in their tracks.
The track you see below is the second track, ahead of the one in the first two pictures - appeared to be a stride. These tracks were large, only a tad bit smaller then ones I have seen from a large domesticated Pit Bull Dog. Get guessing!!!!

Xoxoxo ROar! Woof! puuurrrrrr!

Animal Tracking: Coyote?

Since I have been hearing Coyotes coming down near the house, stalking things in the orchard, howling, yipping, screaming - I figured there must be some kind of evidence of them having been there. Coyotes are extremely cunning animals, and I could almost swear they cover up their own tracks behind them cause I could scarcely find a shred of evidence pertaining to all the wild ruckus that I heard.
It took me a few days but I finally found a single visible track in the mud, right at the edge of a stream. This happens to be a spot where alot of deer and rabbits also come, most likely to drink. It is right under an apple tree where all the critters (including me) frequented through summer and fall to eat up all the yummy red apples.
The difficulty in identifying a coyote track is that a canine track of a near by neighbor's dog will look almost exactly like it. This particular track was alot smaller then the tracks of the neighbor's dog (which i am familiar with) - coyotes being rather small, and their paws being smaller then than a large pit bull.
Canine's can be "diagonal walkers" when stalking, which refers to the pattern in which they stride. The prints can be either close together or further apart depending on whether they are bored, idling, running or walking normal (just like human foot prints change with our emotional/physical state of motion). The prints in the melting snow below were nearby the coyote print above but too hard for me to identify - I thought it had a combo look of a diagonal walker ( stalking coyote) and a galloper (scared bunny? Squirrel?)
Lastly I found these tracks in the crunchy snow about 15 feet above the other mysterious snow tracks and thought all these little creatures are what the coyotes are looking for. Looks like a opossum! That field is a blackberry and black raspberry patch during summer, maybe they have some dried berries stashed somewhere around there. :)
XoXo

Coyotes Calling

Recently at night the coyotes have begun howling, hunting, sneaking around. Coming in close to house, hovering in the orchard making their wild, terrifying cries that sound like a group of old women screaming out in fury and pain. It's been a while since I lived somewhere coyotes visit regularly- 3 years ago also in Big Sandy Mush, they came 5 nights a week howling right outside my house till I would feel like I might pee on myself. Not from fear, but because the deafening coyote call naturally induced that bodily reaction. They killed one of my cats and chased down another till it was so traumatized it was never normal again. At the time I had an outhouse for a bathroom and was too scared to go out at night because this particular pack was quite large, sounding like about 20 coyotes together. I moved away shortly after they started coming close to the house during the day also looking for prey. The strange part was they are so cunning, I never once saw one and still have not. About 2 weeks ago a friend walking up the road saw one in broad daylight and it was the first time he ever saw one in his 21 years of living here.
Yesterday I went up into the orchard to look for coyote tracks, although their sounds had been a little more distant - I found not a trace of the gang which sounds to be about 8-10 coyotes. I have to wonder if they are smart enough not to run through the mud, unlike the deer which seem to not mind trampling through at all.
Last night though only a few hours ago I heard them kill an animal in the orchard - their howls were shrill and intense, and I could clearly hear something crying out in horror as it got killed or injured in the middle of the coyotes' battle yells & barks. It sounded like a puppy, a deer, something kind of innocent to the way of a coyote and ended it's call for help abruptly.

Here's a lil' coyote info (read more HERE at enature.com) :::
Predators once included Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Mountain Lions, and wolves, but with declining populations of these animals, they are no longer a threat. Humans are the major enemy, purportedly killing Coyotes to protect livestock, as Coyotes are accused, often unjustly, of killing lambs, pigs, and poultry. In the 1970s and 1980s, Coyote pelts became quite valuable, but since the collapse of the fur industry, there has been little demand for them. Despite years of being trapped, shot, and poisoned, Coyotes have maintained their numbers and continue to increase in the East.

XoXo