Separating Felines and Canines

Cats and dogs–they live among us as companion animals, and their wild relatives are a familiar presence in our landscapes. The two groups differ from most other mammals in having four toes on both front and back feet, and in both groups there’s a smooth pad (the middle pad) behind the toes. So how to tell them apart? One thing we often hear is that canine tracks show claws and feline tracks don’t, but the presence or absence of claws can’t always be relied on. Cats can extend their claws if they need more grip, and the claws of wild canines may not touch the ground because they are naturally trimmed by constant movement. Fortunately there are other features that can help us to distinguish between canines and felines. It’s a simple matter of paying attention to details, and there are plenty of them. So let’s get started.

In the photo below you see the front track of a coyote, direction of travel from bottom to top. The overall shape is elongated, the toes are relatively large compared to the middle pad, and the outer toes are tucked tightly behind the leading toes. The middle pad has a pointed forward edge. Roughly in the center, between the toes and the middle pad, there’s a dome-like area, and an X is formed by the ridges between the middle pad, the outer toes, and the two leading toes taken together. The dome and the X are the negative spaces, areas that are not pressed down by toes or pads, and their arrangement is an unmistakable indicator for members of the dog family. (By the way, note that there are no claw marks.) And another important detail: the track is symmetrical. By symmetrical I mean that the right half is almost identical to the left half.

Here’s a way to grasp the concept of symmetry. In the next illustration I’ve added a vertical line which bisects the track. If you imagine folding the right half over along the line so it lies on top of the left half, the two halves will match almost exactly. The two leading toes are almost even with each other, the inner and outer toes are of similar size and spacing, and the middle pad seems to point straight ahead.

Now let’s compare a feline print. The photo below shows the front track of a bobcat. The overall shape is more rounded, the toes are relatively small compared to the middle pad, and they’re arranged in a wide arc in front of the middle pad. The left-most toe is smaller and farther back than the others. There’s no central dome, and the ridge between the middle pad and the toes is broadly curved or C shaped. Rather than pointing straight ahead, the middle pad is canted to the left. The arrangement of toes and middle pad makes the track very asymmetrical.

To get at the asymmetry here’s the same photo with a vertical line bisecting the track. If you do the mental experiment of folding one side over onto the other as we did with the coyote print, you’ll see that the two halves don’t match. One toe leads all the others, and the smallest one lags behind the other three. The whole print seems to be canted to one side. Because it’s asymmetrical we can tell which front print this is–it’s the left. If we were looking at an isolated coyote track it wouldn’t be possible to know if it was a left or a right.

Here’s the front print of another canine, a red fox. It’s not as elongated as the coyote print, but the overall shape is still more oval than round, and the outer toes are tucked in behind the leading toes. The central dome and canine X are unmistakable, and the track is beautifully symmetrical. In this case claw imprints show as delicate punctures directly ahead of the toes. The mud was just moist enough to show the hair on the underside of the foot and the chevron in the middle pad perfectly.

Perhaps you’re thinking that I oriented the bobcat track incorrectly, and that if it were rotated a little it could be made to look more symmetrical. But the asymmetry is inescapable, no matter how you look at it. In fact, when an animal is moving at a steady gait the correct orientation of each print is dictated by the direction of travel, and the imaginary bisecting line should be parallel to the direction of travel. The next photo shows part of a sequence of tracks made by a house cat moving at an overstep walk, a gait in which the rear print lies ahead of the front print from the same side. The direction of travel is from lower right to upper left.

In the next illustration I’ve added a line which defines the direction of travel to the same photo. (Sorry about the slight wobble, just imagine it’s really straight.) With the line as a reference, you can see that each track is canted to the outside. Also notable in this photo are the shapes of the middle pads: wide and blunt on the forward edges and scalloped on the trailing edges. The C-shaped ridges between the middle pads and the toes are especially striking.

The topic of gaits brings up another criterion sometimes said to distinguish canines from felines–direct register versus indirect register. Walking felines are said to place their feet in direct register, so that the back foot comes down exactly on top of the print of the front foot from the same side. Canines are supposed to prefer the indirect register walk, placing the back foot partly, but not exactly, on top of the front from the same side. But this isn’t a make-or-break test. The next three photos illustrate this point: first you see a bobcat direct register walk, next a bobcat indirect register walk, and finally a red fox direct register walk. The fact is that both felines and canines use both direct and indirect register walks. It’s fair to say that domestic dogs and cats are more likely to walk in indirect register than wild canines, but even among wild species there’s variation, and the difference isn’t very useful for identification purposes. And of course it wouldn’t apply in other kinds of walks, such as the overstep walk in the previous illustration.

Our other fox, the gray fox, makes tracks that are a little more catlike. In the photo below you see a rear print, below, and a front print, above. The overall shapes are round enough to be confusing, the central dome and canine X are a little different from the ones shown for the fox and the coyote, and in the hind track there appears to be a leading toe. Gray foxes have semi-retractable claws which don’t usually show in tracks, so the presence of claw marks suggests that the animal needed more stability in the wet mud.

In spite of the variations the tracks are clearly canine. Compare them to the bobcat tracks in the next photo, this time a left rear below and a right front above.

These two photos bring out some potential pitfalls in the task of differentiating canines from felines. Animal feet aren’t rigid, and toes may spread or tighten depending on the animal’s movement and the nature of the substrate. In the gray fox hind print the two leading toes gripped the soil differently, causing one to appear farther ahead than the other. The normal symmetry of canine tracks can be altered by head turns, changes of direction, or by sloping terrain. Another potential source of uncertainty is the fact the hind feet of felines are often more elongated than the front feet. In the bobcat photo above the rear track has a slightly canine appearance due to the tighter arrangement of toes and the more oblong shape.

And lastly, never underestimate the power of domestic dog tracks to create confusion. The track in the next photo was about the size and overall shape of a bobcat print, lacked claw marks, and mimicked the blunt middle pad and C-shaped ridge of a feline. Red flags were raised by the symmetrical structure and the large toes, but it was really the presence of more tracks which clinched the identity as dog. Domestic canines are incredibly variable–their tracks can be quite round and the tendency of the toes and middle pads to spread can give the negative spaces a feline appearance.

So the task of separating canines and felines is not always easy. Isolated prints are harder than more complete sequences, and weathering and distortions can make things difficult. But the more you study them, the better you’ll be at picking out the crucial features. And if one of these creatures is rare in your area, it’s a joy to find it’s tracks and know you’ve made a solid identification.