Found these track a couple years ago, they went past a cat cage but kept on bounding by. I have my thoughts on what they are but that furbearer is not supposed to be here. Really heavy timber within 50 yds with really rough rocky ravines. My guess is some of the northern trapper will have a idea, or I will just feel dumb. Little info to help, stride length 1.5’ to 2’, track size similar to chew can little smaller maybe, non retractible claws, i followed them for about 200 yds and there not yote tracks.

Five toes also, forgot that part....

Fisher?

Are there Fisher in Nebraska? I don't remember them being there when i was younger and lived there but i often chased tail of a different variety at that age and didn't pay much attention to other things lol.

Well thats what i think they are also, i seen few fisher tracks when i lived in Alaska and no Nebraska claims to not have fisher here. On that note, they also claim not to have moose and bear, but a moose just was hit on highway Saturday, and black bear have been spotted here twice.

Otter

Im only a couple hours at most away from the Rockies, also had a old timer who has lived here his whole life say he has also seen a fisher here before, he lives two miles from where i found the tracks. How big is the home range of a fisher?

I figured this would be a guess and i was going to state in the original post that there is no water within 15 miles besides stock tanks. But there are otter here, just not at where i live. We are more of a high desert/shortgrass prairie 5K feet elevation with not much water or annual rain normally.

If I remember correctly from looking it up last year it’s around 10 square miles.

Otter. They occasionally do travel considerable distances overland from one water course to another'

Well he wont find water anywhere soon in any direction, totally plausible though. Im 30 miles from the nearest river and it would be 45 miles to nearest lake. Im still leaning toward fisher myself. Ive never seen a actual otter track in snow, do they leave any tail marks and slide occasionally?

Yes otter usually leave tail drag marks and do slide occasionally. OK then with the water so far away I'll go with fisher if the track size is about 2 1/2 "L and 2"W.

We have a lot of fisher and otter here - I'd guess otter

No trail drags and i followed them till rocks with no snow and lost them after about 200 yds. Track were right in the size range you listed 2.5” x 2”.

OK l then say they are fisher but its looping/gait seems strange to me with dragging its feet as the snow does not appear to very deep. What say other fisher trappers?

Was there any slide spots in the snow? An otter will not go 200 yards without sliding when there is snow.

Those don't look like any fisher track I have seen.Look like otter bounding along.When bounding like that otter hold their tail high.

No slides.

Heres a idea of the type of country im in, there are sharp elevation drops of 200 - 400 feet in elevation, lots of rock and cliffs. No creeks or streams or lakes with fish or food for a otter in a 60 mile circle from where tracks were. Still possible it was a otter, but he was a lost one if it was.

Badgers have five toes also if im not mistaken, but stride to long and never seen a badger bound.