The six animals are as follows:
BLACK BEAR, RIGHT FRONT FOOT, outlined in yellow
(see Photos below). Although the Bob Marshall Wilderness (a.k.a.
"The Bob") is famous for its grizzly bears, black bears live
there too. The curvature of the arrangement of the toes in the
track, and the wide spacing between the toes, indicates black
bear; grizzly bear toes are closer to being in a horizontal line
and are scrunched closer together. The claw marks, which are
almost impossible to see on the photo but were pretty clear by
eye, are outlined in yellow as well (this is another example of
a quiz that is more difficult than real tracking). Anyway, the
short length of the claw marks strongly suggests black bear
rather than grizzly bear which has much longer claws. If the
claws stick out way in front of the toes, it’s grizzly; if the
claws look short, it’s probably black bear but can be either.
The track is a front foot – a bear’s hind foot has a long heel
that looks very much like a human barefoot track. Lastly, it may
come as a surprise that this is a right track; not a left. Note
that the big toe is on the right side, and the plantar pad is
thicker on the right side. Bears are unique animals in that
their big toe (and bulk of their plantar pad) is on the outside
of the foot, which helps them in climbing trees.
LEAST CHIPMUNK, RIGHT & LEFT FRONT FEET, outlined
in pink. This was amazing to see, chipmunk tracks inside a bear
track! There are 4 toes on the foot, indicating rodent front
foot. The size of the prints (¾" long by ½" wide) is on the
order of Chipmunk, Red Squirrel, or Golden-Mantled Ground
Squirrel, which all live in this habitat. Field guides indicate
the size of the prints is right on for Chipmunk and a little too
small for Red Squirrel or Ground Squirrel, and the upside-down
"U" shape to the plantar pad is also more suggestive of Chipmunk
than the other rodents.
HUMAN, LEFT BOOT print, partially obscured by the
bear print, outlined in blue. The outlines show traces of left
boot prints from at least three people in the picture.
HORSE, LEFT HORSESHOE print, outlined in orange.
This was (perhaps) the hardest of them all, because it was so
much obscured by the human boot print, hence it was highlighted
in the clues that this is a popular equestrian area. I say it’s
a left foot only because it’s on the left side of the trail, and
there was no obstacle up ahead that would have obviously made
the horse step off the trail, but I suppose it’s fully possible
that it’s a right foot.
DEER, two faint tracks, outlined in aqua. They are
probably Mule Deer, going by the track size & habitat, although
they could be a white-tailed fawn as well.
COYOTE pup, very faint track outlined in green. The
4-toe arrangement with prominent toenails indicates dog family.
The robust nail marks are more suggestive of coyote than red
fox, and the tight toe arrangement with two distinctly centred
toenails are more suggestive of coyote than domestic dog. The
track is too small to be an adult coyote, so it could be any of
the three.
