kirstenwelge's Identifications

just above my nail, my finger is 2-2.1 centimeters wide, so when I enlarge the photo so that my finger is that large on the computer, this track is 8 centimeters long. even taking into consideration that melting snow prints can get larger, my impression is that these prints were less than 12 hours old, are too big for American Mink, so what does that leave? River Otter?

wish I had taken more photos of these prints, as there were many right down the middle of the whole path in the melting snow

The only expected Mustelids here are Long-tailed and Short-tailed Weasels, and Mink. These tracks are certainly too big for the weasel and to me, seem too big for an American Mink.

In the end I've come to the conclusion these are the tracks of a large male mink.

This seems to be the best candidate for the region, but the tracks were found on a property whose nearest consistent water body is 0.6 miles away across a street. Not a huge obstacle, but enough to make the residents doubt that an otter would make the trek. May be several species, but I hope not, haha!