January 2026 Natural Mystery Answered

Everyone who submitted an answer to last month’s Natural Mystery identified these as the tracks of a medium sized carnivore. And that they are. Congratulations to Erin Anderson, Bill Kass, and Maria Wesserle who sorted through the clues to correctly identify the species that left these particular prints.

These are the tracks of a fisher (Pekani pennanti).

Erin starts us off with this simple observation: “I see 5 toe impressions in each track. This leads me to mustelid.”

Exactly right, thought it takes some sharp eyes and careful interpretation to identify all five toes. Bill points out one challenge in interpreting these tracks, which is that “these are not two tracks, but actually four,” with hinds superimposed on top of fronts. Hints of the front tracks are visible, and complicate some of our interpretation, but we are primarily looking at the hind prints here.

In the track on the left, toes 2-5 show clearly while, as Bill notes, “there is a shadow of toe 1 visible.” A nearly straight line drawn from toe 3 through toe 2 points to the faint indent that is toe 1. On the right track, Bill again explains, “toe 1 is more evident, with toe 5 being less obvious, but still there.” So, as Erin says, there are five toes in each track.

Maria points out some additional features for us to consider:

“I see an upside down V-shaped segmented palm pad and a ""halo"" around the toe and palm impressions, presumably caused by furry feet.”

The tracks are difficult to measure accurately, but appear to be around 2” wide and 2½ – 3” long.

With all these features in mind, we can begin to rule out candidates. Coyote and bobcat are close to this are in this size range, but would show four toes, a different shape palm pad, and different proportions between the size of the palm and the size of the toes. Coyotes would show proportionally larger toes, and bobcats would tend to show a proportionally larger palm.

Bill rules out raccoon, noting that the toes are not connected to the palm pad. I would add that the toes also appear too bulbous and the palm pad is too small.

This leaves us with our mustelids. Among mustelids, Erin points out that the size “rules out our small weasels (long-tailed, short-tailed, and least).” Bill adds “This would be a big marten and way too big for a mink. Also, marten have not been recorded at Cedar Creek.” This narrows us down to two candidates, fisher and otter.

Erin and Bill both note that the blurred appearance of the tracks is more typical of fisher, with its heavily furred feet. Maria adds an additional point about foot morphology:

“I'm also ruling out otter due to the appearance of the palm pads. Otters have chunkier palm pads that are fused together. While the lobing in otter palm pads can sometimes give the impression of segmentation, the palm pads in this photo (especially the one on the left track) are too slim and too clearly segmented for otter.”

As Maria sums up:

“This is therefore a fisher! Fishers are regular inhabitants of Cedar Creek. The furry feet and slim, segmented palm pads in an upside down V-shape are typical of fisher tracks. Like other mustelids, fishers have five toes on each foot, though toe 1 doesn't always register reliably.”

There are likely only a few fisher living at Cedar Creek—perhaps three or four—but they are prolific track-makers in the winter as they travel extensively and tend to avoid well-used trails. Many of our tracking teams at our January 31 Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey spotted fisher tracks. You can see some of these, and other findings from our Cedar Creek surveys, here on iNaturalist.

Congratulations again to Erin, Bill, and Maria for correctly identifying these challenging tracks. And a big thank you to everyone who submitted an answer to this Natural Mystery and shared your process so we could all learn together.