Depending on how they're built and how they move, different animals leave different tracks.

        • Paws or hooves: Some animals with paws, like foxes and bobcats, walk on “tiptoes” so that only the center pads and toes show in their footprints. Animals with hooves, such as horses, deer, cows and elk, are also tiptoe walkers.

        • Claws: Small triangular marks in front of paws are made by claws. Raccoons, skunks, coyotes, foxes and dogs often leave claw marks. But most cats sheathe their claws when they walk or run, leaving no claw marks.

        • Patterns: Some animals that live in trees hop or bound along when they're on the ground. As they bound, their larger hind feet land ahead of their smaller front feet.

        The tracks of hopping animals that live on the ground, like rabbits and mice, are different. Although the hind feet still land ahead of the front feet, the front feet tracks are usually found one in front of the other — not side by side.

        Most bounders that live on the ground, such as weasels, leave paired prints as they run.

        • Speed: Most animals' track patterns change as their gaits change. A walking skunk leaves a pattern of single prints that changes into a diagonal line of prints when it breaks into a run.

        • Direction: Tracks tell what direction an animal was headed. Claw marks point in the mammal's forward direction, just as your toes point in the direction you're going. If claws aren't visible in the tracks, look for soil or snow pushed back by the movement of the animal's feet.

        • Surfaces: Tracks can look different, depending on the surface in which they are made. Distinct tracks will show up in mud, moist earth, and freshly fallen, relatively shallow snow. But they can be blurry in deep snow and don't show up well at all in hard sand and dirt.

        Sources: Ohio Division of Wildlife; Department of Natural Resources.

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