Animal print identification competition

22 Replies

The below picture, taken by Woodlore office member Steve on a trip to East Africa earlier this year, shows an animal print found in the dirt. The first person to find and correctly identify it wins, as always, a £10.00 Woodlore Voucher:

The animal print found in Eastern Africa, correctly identified as that of a hyena

The animal print found in Eastern Africa, correctly identified as that of a hyena

Due to the angle at which the photograph was taken, this wasn’t the easiest print to identify. However, some of you got it right – it is in fact a hyena print; Steve and the group were even lucky enough to see one that day sprinting past them. Of all the comments, Zoe was the first to answer correctly, winning a £10.00 Woodlore Voucher.

If you’d like to brush up on your skills at tracking and identifying wildlife, we’d recommend taking a look at the Animal Tracks & Signs book or, even better, taking part in our Woodlore Tracking course.

22 thoughts on “Animal print identification competition”

  4. Jorrit Iepema's avatarJorrit Iepema

    I think it’s the footprint of a Lion. Likely the East African or Massai Lion, found in east Africa,
    from Ethiopia and Kenya to Tanzania and Mozambique. P. l. nubica.

    Greetings,

    Jorrit Iepema

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  7. Martin Shanks's avatarMartin Shanks

    Wow! quite a number of tracks there overlapping each other.

    Well it’s a big mammalian predator, a female with young I presume. It’s hard for me with no experience.
    My first instincts were a big cat, but it’s hard on the photo to get any sense of scale.
    The small track upper right side seems to have 3 lobes and says cat to me.
    Though the big obvious print centre right and below centre left could perhaps be hyena but I can’t distinguish any claw marks.
    So I am going to go with Female leopard with cubs, perhaps two of them. I’m will not be surprised if I am wrong, but you have to try don’t you 😉

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  15. Pierre's avatarPierre

    Looks round and no claw mark, 4 digits. So big cat.

    The main/middle pad does not have the depressions that seems typical of the lion.

    It seems the fore pad could be somewhat smaller than the rear. I would bet on leopard. It is only a better thematic continuity with the TV serie 😉

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