Guys, guys...
Fascinated as I am by this frontiership discussion
forum (and I am), we seem to gone past the "nobody's-
listening-to-anybody" point in the discussion.
I make the perfect expert for this dispute because I
am not a frontiersman and know nothing about lions,
cougars, pards, and whatnot. Knowing nothing, I
was forced to GoogleStorm the question of "mountain
lion" shoe-size.
I quote a University (don't know which one; I forgot
to copy the URL):
"Mountain lion tracks are generally round with a
diameter from 2.75 to 3.75 inches."
New Mexico State U, circular 561:
"As with other cats, the front foot is the larger, and
the toes tend to spread widely when the animal is
running. The width of tracks varies from 3 to more
than 4 inches..." However, it adds, cats often step in
their own prints, with the saller back foot obliterating
the front print...
Also, one of you is right about smaller wildlife forms
in Florida because Florida is effectively a near-island,
and there is evolutionary dwarfism, however weak, at
work there.
Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be at work on
iguanas, which really creeped me out the few times
I've been in Florida, probably because I live in an
iguanaless state (and don't you wish they all were?).
So, the catprints are affected by motion, foot placement,
whether the cat was sitting, strolling, dancing, or just
doing aerobics...
Cat tracks present measurement problem:
"Mountain lion and grizzly bear researchers
jointly recognized the problem of variable
track size and tried to develop means of over
coming it. During their lion research, Fjelline
and Mansfield (1989) developed a method for
measuring tracks, we call the minimum outline
method." Turns out the FOOT is smaller than the
PRINT. Read the rest at:
http://www.tracknature.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=F3&Store_Code=IS0034
Sites that show tracks with a ruler laid by are almost
exactly 3.0 inches in length and slighly less in width
(it was walking or doing aerobics, I guess).
Here's TEXAS mountain lions:
http://www.wildtrack.org/showcase/developing-species-algorithms/mountain-lion-in-texas.html
with tracks just under 3" in length. I thought they grew
everything BIG in Texas... Hmmm, maybe somebody's
eyes are bigger than their cat.
Another site says: "Bobcat tracks are dainty. Mountain
lions are heavy and their tracks are as large as a human
fist." As if human fists didn't vary widely in size by altitude
and gender...
A website whose function is to warn you of animal attacks
says cougar tracks are over four inches, just in case your
ruler isn't elastic enough to stretch that far when affrighted...
Can a cougar, lion, catamount or panther have footprints
2.5 to 3.0 inches (estimated) or 2.75" or 3.5" or 4" if they're
running, or not, and smaller if they have lived in the Sunshine
State long enough?
The judges will accept that as a "yes."
Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 11:15 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 2nd Report from Strewnfield in Edgewood
Texas
George, Whether you believe the encounter was a big cat or a pussy
cat, is your prerogative, but please don't make me out to be seeing
something SCARY and overestimating it's size. It truly was larger
than
my dog, (Labrador retriever).<<
Well Eric...if you are sticking to the cat you seen had a foot print
of
2.5 to 3 inches diameter, I can't help but think you had
overestimated its
size. Nothing to be ashamed of...it happens to the best of us. I
don't know
how big a black panther foot print should be...if it was one. But I'd
suspect that it would probably be similar to a mountain lion of
comparable size.
I am quite familiar with mountain lion foot prints and a 2.5 to 3
inch
diameter foot print seems ridiculously small for these kind of large
cats.
George
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