It’s been awhile since I’ve put out a new post, due to some medical issues I’ve been having. But things have improved, so I’m happy to be back in action.
Going barefoot, or more accurately, bare-toed, is quite popular among wild mammals. The tops and sides of the feet are typically furred, but most mammals in our region touch the ground with bare skin. This applies to both toe pads and middle pads, and sometimes the heel area as well. In the photo of red squirrel bounding tracks below (direction of travel toward the top) the hind tracks are set more widely above the front tracks. The clean borders and smoothly compacted interiors of the toe and middle pads–and the heel pads in the front prints–are unmistakable evidence of bare skin.
But there are a few inhabitants of our region that buck the trend. The feet of rabbits and hares, for example, are thickly furred, and this fur has a blurring effect on the impressions of the toes and pads. In the photo below you see the tracks of a cottontail rabbit bounding toward the left. The toes are visible, but they lack the clear outlines and smoothly compacted interiors seen in the squirrel tracks shown above.
The fisher is another animal with thickly furred feet. The tracks in the photo below were made by a fisher loping from lower left to upper right, and the toes and middle pads are almost completely muffled by the fur.
In the preceding photo the snow was cold and dry, but if the snow is wetter the toes may be more recognizable. The next photo shows tracks made by a loping fisher traveling from lower right to upper left. In the warmer and more easily compacted snow the toes made visible impressions, but the blurring effect of the fur can still be seen in the middle pad and heel areas.
River otters share many features with fishers but differ in having unfurred toes, middle pads, and heel areas. In the next photo there’s a collection of otter tracks (as well as a few dog tracks). The otter loping pattern in the middle and lower part of the photo (direction of travel from lower right to upper left) is the important part, but it’s a little confusing so bear with me and I’ll try to sort things out. Starting at the lower right the sequence of the otter loping tracks is right front, left front, right rear, left rear. There are a few more otter tracks in the upper area of the photo, and in between the two otter front prints there are two dog tracks, a front with a rear just to its left, oriented to the right. The otter prints in the loping array, especially the left hind print at the far left, show the clearly outlined toe and middle pads and the smooth heel areas characteristic of bare skin. And incidentally, the rear dog print also has cleanly outlined toe impressions made by toes of bare skin.
We have two species of foxes, one with furred feet and the other without. The unfurred feet belong to the gray fox. In the cluster of gray fox prints in the next photo the rightmost and leftmost tracks were made by front feet, and the clearer of the two tracks in the middle was made by a rear foot. The distinct margins bordering the toes of both front and hind prints, and the middle pad of the front track on the right, are evidence of skin covered pads.
Red foxes have thick fur covering almost all of the undersides of the feet, and the blurring effect can be seen in the next photo (rear print on the left, front print on the right, and direction of travel toward the left). But here things get a little complicated. I said the feet were “almost” completely covered because there are two places that don’t grow fur. In the middle pad of the red fox’s front foot there’s a curved ridge, sometimes called the bar, which is unfurred–it can be seen in the front track at the lower right in the photo. There is also a small, hairless oval near the tip of each toe on both the front and the hind feet. In the photo these bare regions show as dark spots in the tips of the toe impressions.
Although tracks in snow usually reveal the presence of fur, mud is better for rendering the fine details. In the next photo you see the front print of a red fox oriented to the right. The fur pressed into the mud shows as thin striations in the toe and middle pads. The unfurred parts of the foot, the bar in the middle pad and the small hairless ovals in the toes, interrupt the striated texture left by the hair.
Felines are characterized by bare toes and middle pads, so their tracks have the cleanly outlined pads of other animals with unfurred feet. But bobcats have separate, interesting feature connected with fur. The fur covering the tops and sides of the feet is very thick, especially in winter. When snow conditions are right this fur pushes into the snow around the outside of the track, creating what’s called a hair halo. In the photo below of a bobcat’s right front print (oriented toward the right) the hair halo shows as a sloping bevel outside the toes.
Hair halos aren’t generally seen in house cats–or canines for that matter. In the next photo you see a coyote front print bordered by abrupt walls rather than a sloping bevel. The inclines at the front and back of the track are entry and exit disturbances, and the grains of snow scattered over the track are due to a light snowfall which must have ended just after the track was made. And as a side note, only bare toes could have made the very distinct and cleanly outlined toe impressions you see in the photo.
Do furred feet help in survival? Probably, since thicker fur over the whole body develops as winter approaches. Are furred feet essential to survival? Probably not, since only some mammals have this trait. For the tracker, it’s enough to recognize furred feet as an interesting characteristic and to appreciate the effect fur has on tracks of some animals.