**Animal Track Identification Chart — Filter by Toes, Claws & Size**

> Count the toes, look for claw marks, measure the print, and this free key narrows 36 North American animal tracks down to the ones that fit.

Source: https://orvik.app/tools/animal-track-identifier/ · updated: 2026-09-03

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Animals

# What animal made this track?

Start with the two characters that never lie: **how many toes registered** and **whether claws printed above them**. Those two alone split every North American mammal into four small groups. Add a measurement — of the pad, not the splayed toes — and you are usually down to two candidates.

Entries **36** Filters **5** Updated **2026-09-03** Cost **Free, no account**

Narrow it down

Clear all

Search tracks by name

Toes showing

Count the front foot. Many animals print a different number front and hind.

4 on all feet 4 front, 5 hind 5 on all feet 2 halves (cloven hoof) 1 solid hoof Bird — 3 or 4 thin toes

Claw marks

Look just beyond the toe pads. Sharp dots or dashes mean claws.

Claws printed No claws Long claws, well ahead of the toes

Length of the front track

Measure the pad and toes, not the splay in mud or the melt-out in snow.

Under 2.5 cm / 1 in 2.5–5 cm / 1–2 in 5–9 cm / 2–3.5 in 9–13 cm / 3.5–5 in Over 13 cm / 5 in

Pattern of the trail

Step back and look at ten metres of trail, not one print.

Neat line, one print in front of another Groups of four, hind feet landing ahead Long hind prints ahead of small front pair Wide, alternating, rolling walk Front and hind side by side, in pairs

Where you found it

Yard, park or suburb Woodland Riverbank, marsh or shore Field, prairie or desert Deep snow

Showing all 36 tracks

1. ### Domestic dog Canis familiaris Round-to-oval print, blunt claws that usually print, toes splayed outward, and a trail that wanders — a dog investigates everything and its track line reflects that. Size Front 4–10 cm depending on breed Where Anywhere people are, and most places they are not. Confused with Coyote. Draw an X between the pads: in a dog the X is broken by the toes crowding inward, in a coyote it stays clean. Then look at the trail — coyotes travel purposefully in a near-straight line, dogs do not. In the record 87,768 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Aug · most distinctive in July · mostly from Australia [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219200)

2. [Reading tracks in the field](https://orvik.app/animals/animal-track-identification/)

3. ### Coyote Canis latrans A compact oval with the two front toes close together and pointing forward, small claw dots, and a hard, efficient straight-line trail that crosses open ground without detouring. Size Front 6–7.5 cm long, clearly longer than wide Where The whole of North America including city centres. Confused with Medium dogs. Coyote tracks are narrower for their length and the trail is the real evidence: a straight bearing over a long distance is almost never a dog. In the record 105,972 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in January · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219153)

4. ### Red fox Vulpes vulpes Small dainty canine print with a distinctive bar or chevron across the heel pad, and in winter the dense foot fur blurs the whole outline into a fuzzy oval. Size Front 4.5–6 cm Where Farmland, suburbs and forest edge across North America, Europe and Asia. Confused with Cat tracks — but a fox prints claws and a cat does not. In the record 2,011,801 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in June · mostly from Switzerland [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219243)

5. ### Gray wolf Canis lupus Dog-shaped but massive, with heavy blunt claws and toes so large that a wolf print will not fit inside your palm. Trail is a long straight economical line. Size Front 10–13 cm long Where Northern Rockies, Great Lakes, Alaska, Canada and northern Eurasia. Confused with Large dogs, which is why size alone never settles it. Wolves place hind foot directly into the front print, producing a single clean line of prints. In the record 218,861 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–Jul · most distinctive in August · mostly from France [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219173)

6. ### Domestic cat Felis catus Round print with no claw marks and an asymmetric arrangement — one toe leads, exactly as your middle finger does. The rear of the heel pad has three lobes. Size Front 2.5–4 cm, as wide as it is long Where Suburbs and farmland worldwide. Confused with Fox. If claws printed, it is not a cat. Retractable claws are the whole diagnostic. In the record 217,740 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in July · mostly from Australia [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2435035)

7. ### Bobcat Lynx rufus A house-cat print scaled up by half: round, clawless, leading toe offset, three-lobed rear on the heel pad. Trail follows cover — walls, hedgerows, ditch lines. Size Front 4–5.5 cm Where Almost all of the contiguous United States and northern Mexico. Confused with Large house cats. Above 5 cm you are in bobcat territory; below 4 cm you are not. In the record 91,961 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Apr · most distinctive in February · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2435246)

8. ### Mountain lion Puma concolor Very large, wider than long, no claws, with a heel pad that is enormous relative to the toes and has two lobes at the front and three at the back. Size Front 7–10 cm wide Where Western North America, Florida, and the whole of South America. Confused with Big dogs. The clawless round toes and the M-shaped heel pad settle it — no canid prints without claws. In the record 23,522 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in January · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2435099)

9. ### Black bear Ursus americanus The hind track looks unnervingly like a broad, flat human foot with five toes in a shallow arc and short claw dots close to the toes. Size Hind 15–18 cm long; front 10–13 cm wide Where Forested North America from Florida to Alaska. Confused with Grizzly. On a black bear the claws sit close behind the toe pads; on a grizzly they print two to three toe-lengths ahead. In the record 57,375 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2433407)

10. ### Grizzly bear Can injure you Ursus arctos horribilis Front claws print far ahead of the toes — often 5 to 8 cm clear of them — and the toes sit in a straighter line than the black bear's curved arc. Size Front pad 13–18 cm wide Where Alaska, western Canada, the northern Rockies. Risk A fresh grizzly track means leave the drainage, make noise, and do not follow it. In the record 52,541 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Aug · most distinctive in August · mostly from Norway [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2433433)

11. ### Raccoon Procyon lotor Five long slender toes on a small palm — the print looks like a tiny human hand. The trail is the giveaway: a front foot and the opposite hind foot land side by side, over and over. Size Front 5–7 cm, hind 7–10 cm Where All of North America and, as an introduction, much of Europe and Japan. Confused with Opossum. The opossum hind foot has a thumb pointing sideways at nearly ninety degrees; the raccoon has nothing like it. In the record 189,281 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5218786)

12. ### Virginia opossum Didelphis virginiana The hind foot carries an opposable clawless thumb held out to the side, so the print looks like a starfish with one finger pointing the wrong way. Nothing else in North America does this. Size Front and hind both 4–6 cm Where Eastern and central United States, the Pacific coast, and into Ontario. Confused with Raccoon, until you find one clean hind print with the thumb. In the record 61,120 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2439923)

13. ### Striped skunk Mephitis mephitis A small five-toed print with front claws that print as long parallel scratches — the animal digs for grubs, and the front feet are built for it. The hind track shows a long flat heel like a miniature bear. Size Front 3–4.5 cm including claws Where Across North America, including dense suburbs. Confused with Young raccoon. The skunk's claw marks are proportionally far longer and the toes much stubbier. In the record 39,206 georeferenced records · half of them May–Sep · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219380)

14. ### River otter Lontra canadensis Broad five-toed print, sometimes with webbing printed between the toes, and — the real signature — a slide: a smooth trough 20 to 30 cm wide in snow or mud where the animal stopped running and tobogganed. Size Front 5–7 cm, hind 6–9 cm Where Rivers, lakes and coasts throughout North America. Confused with Beaver, which shares the habitat. Beaver hind feet are far larger and fully webbed, and a beaver leaves a tail drag. In the record 27,214 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in December · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2433727)

15. ### American mink Neogale vison Small star-shaped five-toed prints that appear in tight diagonal pairs along the very edge of the water, following the bank rather than crossing open ground. Size 3–4 cm, in bounding pairs 30–60 cm apart Where Water margins across North America; introduced across Europe. Confused with Marten, which is a forest animal. Habitat separates them almost perfectly. In the record 36,710 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–May · most distinctive in January · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/4833733)

16. ### American badger Taxidea taxus Massive front claws print as long grooves well ahead of the toes, and the whole trail is pigeon-toed — the front feet point noticeably inward. Usually found near a fresh elliptical burrow with a spoil fan. Size Front 5–7 cm plus 2–3 cm of claw Where Grassland and open country from the Great Plains west. In the record 6,510 georeferenced records · half of them May–Aug · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2434102)

17. ### Beaver Castor canadensis Enormous webbed hind feet dwarf the small hand-like front feet, and a broad tail drag frequently erases the prints between them. Look for gnawed stumps within a few metres. Size Hind 12–18 cm, front 5–7 cm Where Streams, ponds and rivers across North America and reintroduced across Europe. Confused with Otter. The webbed hind foot over 12 cm is beaver; otters do not reach that size and do not drag a wide flat tail. In the record 98,674 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–Apr · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2439838)

18. ### Muskrat Ondatra zibethicus Hind foot fringed with stiff swimming hairs that print as a faint halo, front foot showing only four usable toes, and a thin whip-like tail drag between the prints. Size Hind 5–7 cm, front 3–3.5 cm Where Marshes, canals and slow rivers across North America and much of Eurasia. Confused with Young beaver — but the muskrat tail drag is a narrow line, the beaver's a broad smear. In the record 1,521,958 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in October · mostly from the Netherlands [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219858)

19. ### North American porcupine Erethizon dorsatum The sole prints with a distinctly pebbled, warty texture, the trail is strongly pigeon-toed, and in snow the low-slung body ploughs a trough with quill-drag marks at the sides. Size Hind 7–10 cm Where Forests of Canada, the northern US and the Rockies. In the record 25,858 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–Jun · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/6066824)

20. ### Eastern gray squirrel Sciurus carolinensis Bounding groups of four with the two larger hind prints landing side by side in front of the two smaller front prints — and the trail runs tree to tree rather than along the ground. Size Hind 4–6 cm, front 2.5–3 cm Where Eastern North America, introduced across Britain, Ireland and Italy. Confused with Rabbit, which uses the same pattern. A rabbit places its front feet one behind the other, a squirrel places them side by side. In the record 639,744 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in June · mostly from the United Kingdom [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219681)

21. ### Eastern cottontail Sylvilagus floridanus Furry feet leave soft-edged prints with almost no pad detail, in a long Y: two hind prints ahead, two front prints in a line behind them. Size Hind 7–9 cm, front 2.5–4 cm Where Fields, hedges and gardens across eastern and central North America. Confused with Squirrel. Rabbit front feet land one in front of the other; squirrel front feet land level. In the record 149,003 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2436886)

22. ### Snowshoe hare Lepus americanus The same rabbit Y, but the hind feet splay enormously in soft snow — a print far wider than any cottontail's, which is the whole point of the animal. Size Hind up to 12–15 cm when splayed Where Boreal forest of Canada, New England, the Rockies and the Cascades. In the record 25,265 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2436794)

23. ### White-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus Two pointed crescents forming a heart shape with the point in the direction of travel. Dewclaws print behind only in deep mud, snow or when running. Size 5–8 cm long Where Almost everywhere east of the Rockies, and much of the west. Confused with Sheep and goat, which have blunter, more parallel halves. A pointed tip is deer. In the record 347,824 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440965)

24. ### Mule deer Odocoileus hemionus Slightly larger and blunter than a white-tail, and the trail often shows the species' stiff-legged four-footed bounce, with all four prints landing in a tight cluster. Size 6–9 cm long Where Western North America from the Great Plains to the Pacific. In the record 146,227 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Aug · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440974)

25. ### Elk Cervus canadensis Big, rounded at the tip rather than pointed, and roughly as wide as it is long — a deer track that has stopped looking like a heart and started looking like a cow. Size 9–11 cm long Where Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest and reintroduced herds in the east. Confused with Cattle, which share the blunt shape. Cattle prints are wider still and the two halves splay apart. In the record 41,871 georeferenced records · half of them May–Aug · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/8600904)

26. ### Moose Alces alces Enormous and sharply pointed, with the two halves splaying apart in soft ground and heavy dewclaw marks behind. Stride length alone — well over a metre — rules out everything else. Size 12–17 cm long Where Alaska, Canada, New England, the northern Rockies and northern Eurasia. In the record 144,605 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jun · most distinctive in June · mostly from Estonia [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440940)

27. ### Wild boar Sus scrofa Rounded, splayed and squat, with dewclaws printing wide of the main hooves rather than behind them — so the whole print is broader than a deer's. Rooted-up ground nearby confirms it. Size 5–8 cm, wider than long Where The US South and California, and across Europe and Asia. Confused with Deer. Boar tracks are wider than long, deer tracks are longer than wide. In the record 1,182,624 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in November · mostly from Spain [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/7705930)

28. ### Horse Equus caballus One solid rounded hoof, often with the U of a metal shoe and nail heads printed. Unshod horses leave a clean crescent with the triangular frog visible in the centre. Size 10–15 cm across Where Trails, farmland and open range everywhere. In the record 90,643 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Oct · most distinctive in July · mostly from Chile [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440886)

29. ### Domestic cattle Bos taurus Two large blunt crescents that spread widely apart, leaving a print rounder and much heavier than any wild deer. Where they gather, the ground is churned into a lattice of overlapping prints. Size 10–13 cm Where Pasture and open range worldwide. In the record 442,178 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Jan · most distinctive in November · mostly from Chile [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2441022)

30. ### Nine-banded armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus Deep narrow claw punches that read at first glance like a miniature cloven hoof, alongside shallow cone-shaped snout holes where the animal rooted for grubs. Size 3.5–5 cm Where The US South from Texas to Florida, and north through Missouri. In the record 27,269 georeferenced records · half of them Oct–Jan · most distinctive in December · mostly from Colombia [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440779)

31. ### Groundhog Marmota monax Chunky front prints with four long digging claws and a heavy hind print with five toes, always within a short run of a burrow mouth about 25 cm across with a fan of earth outside it. Size Front 4.5–6 cm with claws Where Eastern and central North America. In the record 47,034 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jun · most distinctive in June · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2437368)

32. ### Wild turkey Meleagris gallopavo Three thick forward toes with a short hind toe printing as a dash behind the middle one, in a long alternating walking line. Prints are far heavier than any songbird. Size 10–13 cm from middle toe to heel Where Woodland and field edge across North America. Confused with Great blue heron, which is even bigger and only found at water. In the record 2,840,016 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–May · most distinctive in May · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/9606290)

33. ### Great blue heron Ardea herodias Huge, extremely long thin toes with a fully developed backward toe printing in line with the middle one, walking slowly along the water's edge in a nearly straight single file. Size 15–20 cm Where Shorelines, marshes and pond edges across North America. In the record 14,194,317 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in August · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/9630752)

34. ### Canada goose and ducks Branta canadensis, Anas species Three forward toes joined by a webbing that prints as a smooth triangle between them. Trail is a wide alternating waddle. Size Goose 8–11 cm; mallard 5–7 cm Where Ponds, rivers, lawns and playing fields across the northern hemisphere. In the record 23,296,736 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–May · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/5232437)

35. ### Crow and raven Corvus brachyrhynchos, C. corax Three slim forward toes and one long backward toe, in an alternating walk rather than the paired hop of most songbirds. Ravens are half again as large and often leave wing-tip sweeps in snow. Size Crow 6–8 cm; raven 9–11 cm Where Everywhere in North America and Eurasia. In the record 29,072,171 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–May · most distinctive in February · mostly from the United States [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2482507)

36. ### House mouse and voles Mus musculus, Microtus species Tiny four-toed front and five-toed hind prints, usually with a fine tail drag, appearing along walls, beams and the edges of snow-covered runways rather than in the open. Size Under 1.5 cm Where Everywhere, indoors and out. Confused with Shrews, which are effectively the same size. At this scale the tail drag and the runway system tell you more than the print does. In the record 214,725 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–May · most distinctive in March · mostly from Australia [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/7429082)

37. ### Norway rat Rattus norvegicus A larger mouse print with a thick, unmistakable tail drag, running in a consistent greasy path along a wall, pipe or fence line — rats use the same route every night. Size Hind 2–4 cm Where Cities, farms and waterfronts worldwide. In the record 248,585 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in August · mostly from Belgium [check on GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/species/2439261)

Nothing in this key matches every filter at once. That usually means one observation is
off — a colour read in shade, or a size guessed rather than measured. Clear the filter you
are least sure about and look again.

## Measure the pad, not the mud

The commonest reason a track key gives the wrong answer is that the measurement was taken on a bad print. A foot in soft mud splays; a print in melting snow grows all day; a track on a slope skids. Any of those can add half again to a measurement, which is the difference between a bobcat and a mountain lion.

Three habits fix nearly all of it:

- **Find the best print in the trail, not the first.** Walk the line for twenty metres and measure the crispest one, ideally in firm damp sand or a thin skim of mud over hard ground.
- **Measure the pad and toes only.** Exclude claw marks, splay and the dished melt-out rim. If you cannot see a clean pad edge, the print is not measurable.
- **Put something in the photograph.** A coin, a car key, the last joint of your thumb. A track photographed without scale is close to useless afterwards, and this is the single most common regret in a phone full of track pictures.

Snow deserves a warning of its own. A track melting in sun for six hours in spring can double in width and lose all pad detail while keeping a convincing outline, which is how house cats become mountain lions every March. If the edges are rounded and glassy rather than sharp, treat the size as an upper bound only.

## Four toes or five decides most of it

North American mammals sort cleanly by toe count, and this is the fastest cut available to you.

*The first split. Toe counts follow standard tracking references; the front and hind feet frequently differ, so count the front.*

| Toes showing | Who it is | Next question |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 4 front and 4 hind | Dogs, foxes, coyotes, wolves, cats, bobcats, mountain lions, rabbits and hares | Did claws print? Claws mean canid; no claws means felid; furry pad-less prints mean rabbit |
| 4 front, 5 hind | Rodents — squirrels, mice, voles, rats, muskrat, beaver, porcupine, groundhog | How big is the hind foot, and is there a tail drag? |
| 5 front and 5 hind | Raccoon, opossum, skunk, otter, mink, marten, badger, bears | How long are the claws, and does one toe stick out sideways? |
| 2 halves | Deer, elk, moose, boar, cattle, sheep, goats | Pointed tip or blunt? Longer than wide, or wider than long? |
| 1 hoof | Horses, mules, burros | Shod or unshod |
| 3 or 4 thin toes | Birds | Is there webbing, and does a hind toe print? |

The single most useful follow-up question in the whole key is the claw question, and it separates the two groups people most often confuse. **Cats retract their claws and dogs cannot.** A round print with no claw marks in the snow beside your house is a cat — domestic, bobcat or lion depending on size — and a print with two neat dots above the leading toes is a canid, however round it looks.

## The trail says more than the print

Trackers call it the gait pattern, and it survives conditions that destroy individual prints. Step back, look at five or ten metres of trail, and ask what shape the groups make.

**A neat single line** of prints, one almost in front of another, comes from an animal that places its hind foot into the front print — canids, cats and hoofed animals walking. A domestic dog usually breaks the line because it stops and investigates; a coyote or fox holds a bearing.

**Groups of four with the large prints in front** is a bounder: squirrels, rabbits, hares, and at speed most small rodents. The animal launches with the front feet and swings the hind feet past them, so the hind prints land ahead. To split squirrel from rabbit, look at the two front prints — squirrels land them side by side, rabbits one behind the other.

**Prints in pairs, one from each side**, with a front and an opposite hind landing together, is the raccoon's pace-walk and it is close to diagnostic.

**A wide rolling waddle** belongs to the low-slung and heavy: skunks, porcupines, opossums, badgers, bears. Look for a wide straddle — the distance from the left prints to the right prints — rather than for elegance.

**Tight diagonal pairs 30 to 60 cm apart along a riverbank** is a mink or a marten, and almost nothing else moves that way.

## The confusions worth learning by name

### Dog and coyote

Draw an imaginary X in the negative space between the heel pad and the toes. In coyotes and foxes the X is clean and unbroken, because the front two toes sit close together. In dogs the toes splay and something crosses the X. Then use the trail: a coyote crossing a field goes where it is going, a dog does not.

### Bobcat and mountain lion

Both are round and clawless. A bobcat front track is 4 to 5.5 cm; a lion is 7 to 10 cm and noticeably wider than long. If you are trying to decide, the answer is bobcat — lion tracks are unmistakable once you have seen one next to your own hand.

### Raccoon and opossum

Both leave five long toes on a small palm. Find a clean hind print: the opossum has an opposable thumb held out at right angles, and once you have seen it there is no going back.

### Deer and goat

Deer halves are pointed and converge to a tip; sheep and goat halves are blunt and stay parallel. In cattle both halves are blunt and splay apart.

### Black bear and a barefoot person

It is a real confusion and it goes both ways. Bear hind prints have five toes in a shallow arc with the largest on the *outside* — the opposite of a human foot — and short claw dots above them.

## Making the record you will actually be able to use

Most tracks are identified at home rather than in the field, which means the quality of the identification is set by the quality of the record you took. A five-second discipline pays for itself.

1. **One photograph straight down** at the best print, with a scale object beside it, sun coming from the side rather than overhead. Low-angle light is what makes pad edges visible.
2. **One photograph along the trail** from a metre back, showing three or four groups of prints. This is the picture that gives you the gait, and almost nobody takes it.
3. **Note the substrate and the weather.** "Firm wet sand, overnight rain stopped at dawn" turns a track into a dated observation. It also tells you the print is fresh.
4. **Measure and write it down.** Length and width of the pad, straddle, and stride from one print to the next print of the same foot.

If you want a physical copy, a plaster cast takes about fifteen minutes: ring the print with a strip of card, mix plaster of Paris to the consistency of pancake batter, pour from a low height so it does not blow the detail out, and lift it after thirty minutes. Casts of the same species from different substrates are the fastest way to internalise how much a print can vary.

## What this key does not cover

These 36 entries are the animals a person in North America is realistically standing over. Small mammals below the rat-sized end — shrews, weasels in soft snow, bats — are not reliably separable from a photograph, and are grouped rather than split. Regional specialities are absent by design: javelina, coati, ringtail, lynx, wolverine, several tree squirrels and every desert rodent all leave tracks worth learning and none of them are here.

Two structural limits matter more than the species list. A single print, however clear, is weaker evidence than a mediocre trail — professional trackers rank gait and stride above print detail for exactly this reason. And a track tells you an animal passed, not when: in the wrong substrate a print can survive weeks, which is why the substrate note in your record does real work.

Finally, tracks near a carcass, a fresh kill or a den are worth photographing from a distance and leaving alone. That applies to bear tracks in particular, and it is the one place where a confident identification should change your behaviour rather than satisfy your curiosity.

## What the observation record shows

Every entry in this key that carries a scientific name is matched against

- [GBIF](https://www.gbif.org/), the
international register of biodiversity records, and against

- [iNaturalist](https://www.inaturalist.org/).
That puts a hard number behind 36 of the 36tracks here:
**77,988,199 georeferenced records** across the 35 entries that resolve to a single species, spanning 22 families, the oldest of them collected in
1955. The snapshot was taken on 2026-09-04.

That evidence is not spread evenly, and it is worth knowing before you trust a narrow
result. The five best-recorded tracks in this key hold 92%
of all the records between them: Crow and raven alone accounts for
29,072,171, while American badger has
6,510. A common thing is common in the data too, so
when a filter narrows to one frequent entry and one rare one, the frequent one is
usually the answer — and the record count is the quickest way to see which is which.
The same skew applies geographically: 72% of these
records come from the United States, so the key describes what is
reported there far better than it describes anywhere else.

### When these are actually reported

*Half of the 76,009,122 georeferenced records for these 35 tracks fall in January–May alone. The bars are the raw share by month, which mostly measures when people go looking; the line divides each month by the baseline for every species in every Orvik key, so a value above 1.0 means these tracks are reported more than the season alone explains, and it peaks in November. Source: GBIF, snapshot 2026-09-04.*

Half of every record for this group falls in January–May.
A raw month count measures two things at once — when the organism is about, and when
people are outdoors with a camera — and the second effect is large enough to give
almost anything a summer peak. The line on the figure divides each month by the
baseline for every species in every Orvik key, which answers a different question:
relative to when people record anything at all, when are these tracks recorded?
Values above 1.0 are the months that belong to this group rather than to the season.
On that measure 12 of the 35tracks here peak
outside the warm half of the year — Crow and raven, Canada goose and ducks, Muskrat among them. Those are the ones a seasonal rule of
thumb gets wrong.

### Records behind each entry

Sorted by how much evidence exists, not by how likely you are to meet one. The peak
month is the effort-adjusted figure, and it is left blank wherever the sample is too
thin for the month-to-month wobble to mean anything.

*GBIF and iNaturalist record counts for the 36 named tracks in this key,
 snapshot 2026-09-04. Rows above species rank aggregate everything beneath them and
 are not comparable with the rest. Free to reuse with a link to this page.*

| Entry | Accepted name | Rank | GBIF records | Research-grade | Half fall in | Peak, adjusted | Most reported from |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Crow and raven | [Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822](https://www.gbif.org/species/2482507) | species | 29,072,171 | 219,015 | Jan–May | February | the United States |
| Canada goose and ducks | [Branta canadensis](https://www.gbif.org/species/5232437) | species | 23,296,736 | 482,254 | Feb–May | March | the United States |
| Great blue heron | [Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/9630752) | species | 14,194,317 | 457,969 | Jan–Jun | August | the United States |
| Wild turkey | [Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/9606290) | species | 2,840,016 | 198,270 | Feb–May | May | the United States |
| Red fox | [Vulpes vulpes](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219243) | species | 2,011,801 | 166,296 | Jan–Jun | June | Switzerland |
| Muskrat | [Ondatra zibethicus](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219858) | species | 1,521,958 | 58,793 | Jan–Jun | October | the Netherlands |
| Wild boar | [Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/7705930) | species | 1,182,624 | 71,553 | Jan–Jun | November | Spain |
| Eastern gray squirrel | [Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin, 1788](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219681) | species | 639,744 | 401,862 | Jan–Jun | June | the United Kingdom |
| Domestic cattle | [Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/2441022) | species | 442,178 | 56,526 | Sep–Jan | November | Chile |
| White-tailed deer | [Odocoileus virginianus](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440965) | species | 347,824 | 418,677 | Jan–Jun | July | the United States |
| Norway rat | [Rattus norvegicus](https://www.gbif.org/species/2439261) | species | 248,585 | 36,811 | Jan–Jun | August | Belgium |
| Gray wolf | [Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219173) | species | 218,861 | 155,244 | Feb–Jul | August | France |
| Domestic cat | [Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/2435035) | species | 217,740 | 191,591 | Jan–Jun | July | Australia |
| House mouse and voles | [Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/7429082) | species | 214,725 | — | Jan–May | March | Australia |
| Raccoon | [Procyon lotor](https://www.gbif.org/species/5218786) | species | 189,281 | 198,811 | Mar–Jul | July | the United States |
| Eastern cottontail | [Sylvilagus floridanus](https://www.gbif.org/species/2436886) | species | 149,003 | 208,047 | May–Jul | July | the United States |
| Mule deer | [Odocoileus hemionus](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440974) | species | 146,227 | 205,665 | Apr–Aug | July | the United States |
| Moose | [Alces alces](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440940) | species | 144,605 | 71,078 | Apr–Jun | June | Estonia |
| Coyote | [Canis latrans Say, 1823](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219153) | species | 105,972 | 159,152 | Jan–Jun | January | the United States |
| Beaver | [Castor canadensis Kuhl, 1820](https://www.gbif.org/species/2439838) | species | 98,674 | 92,592 | Feb–Apr | March | the United States |
| Bobcat | [Lynx rufus](https://www.gbif.org/species/2435246) | species | 91,961 | 54,972 | Jan–Apr | February | the United States |
| Horse | [Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440886) | species | 90,643 | 47,339 | Jun–Oct | July | Chile |
| Domestic dog | [Canis familiaris Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219200) | species | 87,768 | 155,244 | Apr–Aug | July | Australia |
| Virginia opossum | [Didelphis virginiana Kerr, 1792](https://www.gbif.org/species/2439923) | species | 61,120 | 75,334 | Jan–Jun | July | the United States |
| Black bear | [Ursus americanus Pallas, 1780](https://www.gbif.org/species/2433407) | species | 57,375 | 93,627 | May–Jul | July | the United States |
| Grizzly bear | [Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/2433433) | species | 52,541 | 21,784 | Jun–Aug | August | Norway |
| Groundhog | [Marmota monax](https://www.gbif.org/species/2437368) | species | 47,034 | 64,791 | Apr–Jun | June | the United States |
| Elk | [Cervus canadensis Erxleben, 1777](https://www.gbif.org/species/8600904) | species | 41,871 | 63,821 | May–Aug | July | the United States |
| Striped skunk | [Mephitis mephitis](https://www.gbif.org/species/5219380) | species | 39,206 | 50,687 | May–Sep | July | the United States |
| Nine-banded armadillo | [Dasypus novemcinctus Linnaeus, 1758](https://www.gbif.org/species/2440779) | species | 27,269 | 2,628 | Oct–Jan | December | Colombia |
| River otter | [Lontra canadensis](https://www.gbif.org/species/2433727) | species | 27,214 | 40,117 | Jan–Jun | December | the United States |
| North American porcupine | [Erethizon dorsatus](https://www.gbif.org/species/6066824) | species | 25,858 | 33,732 | Feb–Jun | July | the United States |
| Snowshoe hare | [Lepus americanus Erxleben, 1777](https://www.gbif.org/species/2436794) | species | 25,265 | 25,042 | Apr–Jul | July | the United States |
| Mountain lion | [Puma concolor](https://www.gbif.org/species/2435099) | species | 23,522 | 18,024 | Jan–Jun | January | the United States |
| American badger | [Taxidea taxus](https://www.gbif.org/species/2434102) | species | 6,510 | 7,496 | May–Aug | July | the United States |
| American mink | [Neogale Gray, 1865](https://www.gbif.org/species/4833733) | genus | 36,710 | 26,324 | Jan–May | January | the United States |

This table is assembled from open data and is free to reuse with a link back to this
page. The snapshot behind every Orvik key is published as one downloadable file on the

- [open field data](https://orvik.app/data/) page, with each source's licence terms.

## Questions people ask about this

How do I tell a dog track from a coyote track?

Two tests, used together. Draw an X in the space between the heel pad and the toes: it stays clean and unbroken in a coyote and is crossed by splayed toes in most dogs. Then look at ten metres of trail — a coyote holds a straight economical line across open ground, while a dog wanders, doubles back and investigates. Size overlaps completely between coyotes and medium dogs, so size alone never settles it.

Why are there no claw marks on this print?

Almost certainly a cat: house cat, bobcat or mountain lion, depending on size. Cats retract their claws when walking and dogs cannot. The other clawless prints belong to hoofed animals and to rabbits, whose fur-covered feet leave soft-edged marks with barely any pad detail at all.

The track is enormous — is it a mountain lion?

Usually not. A mountain lion front track is 7 to 10 cm wide, round, clawless, with a heel pad that has two lobes at the front and three at the back. Anything with claw marks is a canid, and anything melting in sun has been growing since it was made. Melted-out tracks in spring snow are the reason most reported lion sightings in the eastern United States turn out to be dogs.

What made a track that looks like a small human hand?

Raccoon, almost certainly — five long slender toes on a small palm, with the front and opposite hind foot landing side by side in pairs along the trail. The alternative is an opossum, and one clean hind print separates them: the opossum has a clawless thumb sticking out at right angles to the other toes.

Can I identify a track from a photograph alone?

Often, if the photograph includes a scale object and a second shot showing the trail. Without a scale the identification is guesswork, because the whole key runs on measurements. Take the straight-down shot with a coin next to the print, then step back a metre and photograph three or four groups of prints so the gait pattern is visible.

How fresh is the track?

Substrate decides that more than time does. In fine dry dust a print blurs within hours of the first breeze; in firm clay it can hold for weeks; in snow it can be sharp at dawn and unrecognisable by afternoon. The usable evidence is edge condition: crisp vertical walls and visible fine texture mean recent, rounded and grainy edges mean old. Rain that stopped at a known time gives you a hard upper bound.

Is it worth casting a track?

For learning, yes. Plaster of Paris, a card collar around the print, fifteen minutes of setting time and a gentle lift gives you a permanent reference. Casting the same species from mud, sand and dust teaches you how much a single animal's print varies, which is the thing that photographs never quite convey.

## Still not sure? Point a camera at it

A filter narrows tracks down to a shortlist. Orvik reads the photo itself and names the species, with the look-alikes ranked underneath so you can check the call yourself.

- [Get Orvik free](https://orvik.app/app/)

## Keep reading on Orvik

- [Animal track identification: a field walkthrough](https://orvik.app/animals/animal-track-identification/)

- [How to identify an animal from a picture](https://orvik.app/animals/identify-animal-by-picture/)

- [What animal makes that noise at night?](https://orvik.app/animals/what-animal-makes-noise-at-night/)

- [Frog vs toad: telling them apart](https://orvik.app/animals/frog-vs-toad/)

- [Identify a snake from a picture](https://orvik.app/animals/identify-snake-by-picture/)

- [What breed is my dog?](https://orvik.app/animals/what-breed-is-my-dog/)

- [What bird is this?](https://orvik.app/birds/what-bird-is-this/)

- [What type of bug is this?](https://orvik.app/insects/what-type-of-bug-is-this/)

## Other free Orvik tools

- [Whose droppings are these?](https://orvik.app/tools/animal-scat-identifier/)
- [What snake did I just see?](https://orvik.app/tools/snake-identifier/)
- [How old is my dog or cat in human years?](https://orvik.app/tools/pet-age-calculator/)
- [What wildflower is this?](https://orvik.app/tools/wildflower-identifier/)
- [What succulent is this?](https://orvik.app/tools/succulent-identifier/)
- [What caterpillar is this?](https://orvik.app/tools/caterpillar-identifier/)
- [What spider is this?](https://orvik.app/tools/spider-identifier/)
- [What beetle is this?](https://orvik.app/tools/beetle-identifier/)

## Where the data comes from

- [Elbroch, M. — Mammal Tracks & Sign (Stackpole Books)](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705310/mammal-tracks-and-sign/)
- [NatureTracking — track and gait reference](https://naturetracking.com/)
- [US Forest Service — wildlife track identification resources](https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r6/plants-animals/wildlife/)
- [Old Farmer's Almanac — animal track identification chart](https://www.almanac.com/content/animal-track-identification)
- [GBIF — Global Biodiversity Information Facility](https://www.gbif.org/)
- [iNaturalist](https://www.inaturalist.org/)

---

HTML version: https://orvik.app/tools/animal-track-identifier/
Structured data for this site: https://orvik.app/api/v1/openapi.json · https://orvik.app/llms.txt
Free to quote and reuse with a link back to the source URL above (CC BY 4.0).