Okay all you trappers, I have a little quiz. There are tracks of at least 4 species here along a little frozen stream. I'm looking for definitive answers. I'll post the answers in the very near future.



(Hint...its a bit of a trick question).

Jack

Cat, Marten,Mice,and Weasel

Mountain. Lion or bobcat, hard to tell with no comparison object, mice, Fisher, mink

Bobcat, mink, Red-backed Vole and Striped Skunk.

Oh boy! Whud I win???????

Beauty of a pic, Jack .

Been working on my wolverine all day so all I'm seeing now are his footie prints

Mountain Lion, Weasel, Mink, and Vole.

I cannot see the picture well enough here to tell, not that I would know them all.
The ones I do see well sure don't look like cougar tracks.

Osky

Bobcat, mink, vole and rabbit

Bobcat,marten,weasel and spotted skunk

Cat...mink / marten / fisher..skunk..or a love sick Coon

Excellent guesses. Kudos to each of you that responded.

A little more of the story, as I'm feeling that the photo is a bit unfair. I am trying to digitize about a million old 2x2 transparencies (slides), and ran across this photo that I took in the Russian Far East in 1994. I'll spill the beans on what the tracks actually are from tomorrow. I apologize for the trick question.

Jack

Bobcat marten mink mouse

Siberian tiger, sable, mouse and ?

Snow leopard, Martes zebellina, Microtus hyperboreus, Ivan Boesky

Amur Leopard, Beech Marten, Red-Backed Vole, American mink........

Leopard, wolverine, marten/sable, and vole of some variety.

Yeah you could be right there Viking. That cattrack provides better scale . Could be gulo tracks next to them

I'm going to guess that the cat is a Eurasian Lynx,to the right of it,sable.The rest,I don't know.

Upon learning of the deceit concerning location of said tracks, I shall not play your silly reindeer games, and in fact, if there were a ball involved, I would quit and take the ball home.
I therefore declare, without hesitation, "Party Foul".
I will consider revoking this declaration if you post the answers by 09:00 Eastern Standard Time.

Okay, okay. Unwad all your panties. Put on your big-boy underoos. The early guesses were amazingly perceptive, then when the hemispheric clue was given, the guesses were all-the-more close.

I'm not positive on the mouse. I assume that it is a Korean field mouse, Apodemus peninsulae, as that was the most common resident by far.
Far Eastern leopard, AKA Amur leopard, Panthera pardus orientalis.
Yellow-throated marten, Martes flavigula.
Manchurian hare, Lepus mandshuricus. However, it just might have been Ivan Boesky with those rabbit slippers he likes to wear.

Needless to say, a couple of pocket sets alongside the bank and a snare or two at a couple of the pinch-spots would have been fun.

I was going to arrange with NAFA that the winner of this contest would receive all of the holdover fur that's still in storage in their dumpsters, but I suspected that nobody would win. We'll chock this one up to Russian collusion, huh?

The cat tracks were left by this guy...


That was some interesting trapping.

Jack

Very interesting thanks

You're welcome Rick. It was a very interesting time over there, one I'm sure you'd have enjoyed.

Nice critter Jack !! I'll bet you used the old paper bag routine on him !!

Was he responsible for the condition of the adjacent tree trunk ??

Good deal, Jack ! What an amazing find for you ...can just imagine your expression !

I saw documentary years ago on the Amur leopard...reported then, that there was something like only 40 individuals left in the wild ?

And those fantastic marten there !

What a life of experiences ! Thank you for sharing this .

white17 - The old paper bag routine worked well, but those leopards aren't as wimpy as the mountain lions, and I found that doubling the bag was advisable. And yes, that was formerly a pristine tree. Also, the cable was all camo'd well before the capture.

Jack

Sharon - When the leopard project was first started, the Russians told me that they figured there were only 12-15 animals remaining. Once I started catching and radio-collaring, they revised their estimate a bit upwards.

That is an interesting picture of the leopard-a beautiful animal.I notice a lot of scratching on the tree trunk,but the cable looks to not be pulled tight nor kinked.Like a lynx,he did not seem to fight that snare too much(foot snare I assume),or was he only caught for a very short time?

Very cool,Jack.I should have figured that one out.

Fascinating ! A dream come true in your history making work, indeed.

The clarity of those tracks are really nice, to me. No smudges at all. Seems like the marten was strolling along with the leopard , discussing how they were laying the groundwork for you to follow

Thanks Gulo! The "Party Foul" declaration has hereby been lifted! (I think you even made the results posting deadline.)
What a cat! Holy smokes.

I imagine some drugs were given....to collar that Cat !

Wow, is that beast beautiful! Please tell us you have written a book about your Far East trapping/research. I would really enjoy reading all about it.

Man, missed it by a hare!

Well, AV, you didn't guess a hare , but yes, you did miss it by a hair !

Jack

One thing's for certain Jack a book about your trapping and research of animals would be interesting to say the least yes I was stumped on the tracks in the snow .

Nessmuck instead of drugs to subdue the leopard that's what the paper bag was used for ! Ha ha

I can see that the hare jumped over the creek, and was not sticking by for dinner.
2 days and I go out on the line and I miss another one of your quiz......

the small animal is not leaping like a Deer mouse Peromyscus, but behaving more like a Sorex palustris

You are absolutely correct Northof50. Doesn't show the hopping gait typical of Peromyscus or Apodemus. There were at least 6 shrew species in Ussuriland, and that is probably a better guess for those tracks depicted. Would likely be Neomys fodiens. Thanks for the correction.

Jack some detail on that set please?
I am more curios on the logistics of your personal substanance while there. Having traveled to some crazy places myself, how much could you ask for and expect from those enlisting your services there or was it a get your shots, get over here, and act like you've lived here before?

Osky

Osky -

For the leopards and the Himalayan bears, I was using foot snares with 3/8 cable. Pretty much all the successful sets were basically blind trail sets. Capture rates, as you might imagine, were dismally low with the target populations being so grim. On the tigers, most successful sets, using 5/8" cable on foot snares, were more or less pee-post sets at the bases of natural marking trees that the tigers had already used. For the large predators (brown bears and black bears included) I much prefer the foot snares. For wolves, I still go with standard-jawed (NOT rubber-jawed), 3/8" offset footholds.

I was pretty much on my own once I arrived in Russia. This was back in '93 and '94, so perestroika and glasnost were relatively new concepts. The language barrier was difficult and, at times, frustrating. Just finding enough food was cumbersome, putting it lightly. I've been back a few times to hunt since living over there, and things (at least up 'til 2002) had gotten much better.

Hope this helps...

Jack

Osky, this was the other species I was trying to trap, collar, and release. To say the least, was a hoot!




This was a young female tiger.

Were they a Belisle foot snare you were using ?
The way the shrew was travelling in and out looking for tunnels was the give away.
The cat tracks imprinted the snow where as the others just marked a path.
The bounding of the prints of the marten sure was interesting.

Thanks Jack.
I had the opportunity several times many years ago to bear hunt in the eastern USSR. I was not comfortable with the logistics side and you as well as a few others back then confirmed my hunches.
Great adventure in the whole for you by the looks of it.

Osky

Northof50 -

No, not Belisles. They were basically an Aldrich-type throw spring, smaller for the leopards, larger (LARGER) for the tigers.
Good eye on the shrew meanderings.


Osky -

You're very welcome, sir. In my opinion, you should not have passed on the opportunity. As difficult as things were over there, I developed quite an affinity for the Russian Far East. European Russia I never cared for. For some time, I was married to a Russian gal that I met over there. I had an invite to go back a couple years ago, but my contact over there was unable to garner a Russian Visa at that time. I have absolutely no idea why it was denied after other trips without a problem.

Jack

Fantastic shot with that orange and black beauty , Jack.

I have always wanted more commissions for images from other countries , such as Russia, etc. in either ADC , trapping, or biology work.

They sure do like you to sit so still and patient , so you can finish your work

So that's how he does it !

Wonder if that works on wolverine ?

Yeah. I've seen him do it on rattlesnakes too.

So it really works !

Ok , all that time of me giving him flask for that technique was for nought !

Maybe I can try that on a skunk sometime but Jack has the touch perfected !

.......oh, wait.....or is that "flack" ?

The Dundee method even works on mosquitoes and ticks.

Gulo, why no catch circle? That is an amazing catch. 1 1/2 duke I am sure. Beautiful Great photo and thanks......jk

jk -

Are you referring to the leopard or the tiger photo? Believe me, if either one was in the snare overnight, there was indeed a notable catch-circle. And the bigger Himalayan bears would log half the forest.

Jack