Scout discovers large animal tracks in snow
Marco Agostinelli, a 33-year-old journalist, was surprised when he saw large paw prints in the snow. This didn’t let him down and he got a double tape measure to measure the size of the print.
The Schwyzer assumes a wolf. Wolf expert warns against jumping to conclusions.
The 33-year-old went for a walk Saturday evening and noticed large paw prints in the snow. “The prints were so big that I’m sure they couldn’t have come from a dog,” Marco told 20 Minutes.
The prints wouldn’t let him go and he went home and took a double tape measure to measure the prints. “The paws were over ten centimeters long and after looking online they could have come from a wolf,” said the 33-year-old.
Marco followed the trail from a farm to the main road. “I followed the clues like Sherlock Holmes, but I lost track along the way,” says Marco. There are dogs around, but he’s never noticed footprints this big.
David Gerke, managing director of the Wolf Switzerland group, emphasizes that footprints are not enough to clearly identify a wolf. “The length of the step and the gait must also be recorded to be sure that it is indeed a wolf,” Gerke explains to 20 Minutes.
“Photos of individual footprints are meaningless, because the presence of a dog can never be ruled out,” explains the wolf expert.
“The size of the print doesn’t say much about the person who caused it, because there are also dogs that leave much larger prints than wolves,” says Gerke. In the images shown, Gerke can neither attribute the track to a wolf nor clearly say that it is not a wolf. “A lot of additional information would be needed to clearly identify a wolf track,” explains the wolf expert.
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