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Black Bear Tracks? on Slide Mountain - September 2011

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TobiasTicetonyk
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Black Bear Tracks? on Slide Mountain - September 2011

Unread post by TobiasTicetonyk »

I took these pictures while backpacking on Slide Mountain in the middle of September 2011. They were taken on the Curtis Ormsbee trail, towards the summit of slide just past the viewpoint that looks out at Table and Lone mountainzz. I have no idea what these are, but I figured I'd post it here.

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Size 13 shoe

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Last edited by TobiasTicetonyk on Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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TobiasTicetonyk
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Re: Unknown Animal Tracks on Slide Mountain - September 2011

Unread post by TobiasTicetonyk »

These were the only tracks I saw in the area- just that one print. This was in a higher elevation ridge forest, no running water nearby. Vegetation in that area is mostly american beech, black cherry, paper birch, and scattered balsam fir. Lots of club moss, mountain woodfern, and plenty of hobblebush to get tangled in. Tons of chipmunks and crazy squirrels around. I do not know why I call them crazy squirrels, probably because when I was in the hammock at night they were flying from tree to tree above me, throwing red spruce cones at the hammock spot after I had packed it up... while yelling in crazy squirrel language. I was in a rush to keep going as it was a long trek, so I did not scout around to look for more tracks. Does not look like a cat paw to me, but I have no idea. Didn't see any kills around it. But on a side note for the topic of death, for the first few weeks after Irene, the conifer forests in the high elevations in the Catskills smelled like death. The rain made the moss and lichen swell up like crazy, and I have never seen so many mushrooms up there. Smelled god awful.
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mike
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Re: Unknown Animal Tracks on Slide Mountain - September 2011

Unread post by mike »

The row of toes look pretty straight, so it looks more like a bear then an cat. Unfortunately tracks start to degrade rather quickly, so you lose a lot of detail. It is very difficult to photograph tracks. They photos seem to lose a lot of the dimensional detail.

In regards to chipmunks an squirrels, there has been a population explosion of them since the Great Snow Storm in Feb/Mar of 2010. Bobcats were most significantly impacted by the storm. After the storm we only found 1 bobcat in the center of the park. Some new ones are now migrating into the park. This explosion of rodents has allowed owls to return back to the park also. In the past owls were a rare visitor. You would see them on the eastern escarpment and in the western Catskills. Now, they are coming back in force.

When they deforested the Catskills back in the 1800's, many species died. Deer were brought to extinction. They had to bring in some deer to repopulate them. They set aside 200 acres and fenced them in below Slide Mtn. Today, the deer you see in the Catskills came from this 200 acres. Owls never recovered. Mainly because the rodent population was so poor. In the Winter, you would rarely see rodent tracks. But, this winter I think you will see lots. This may also cause the spread of Timber Rattlesnakes. This year, we saw rattlesnakes in places they have never been seen before. The Feb/Mar 2010 snow storm may correct a void of missing species over the past century.

When we were out a couple weeks ago, I heard many owls. Something I have never heard in my 50 years of hiking in the Catskills. It is ironic because Coxsackie has one of the best populations of owls in the United States.
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TobiasTicetonyk
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Re: Unknown Animal Tracks on Slide Mountain - September 2011

Unread post by TobiasTicetonyk »

Yes that storm was pretty outrageous. Some of my notes about wildlife I have seen- lots of bears in Stony Clove this past year (if you have seen my "Stony Clove Falls" pictures"- and even on September 30th A friend and I saw a group of 5 scrambling up Plateau from the lake. Over the summer I was doing some research for my senior thesis, part of which included a vegetation sample and line transect across the summit of Blackhead. Right on the summit there was a rather large porcupine. I followed its scurry trail, and it went south. While painfully exploring the thick forest I realized that one could observe "tunnels" in the conifer forest, where there are broken away bottom branches that the mammals use to roam around. Pretty neat.

I did a big search for black bear tracks in mud and it seems to me like that is what these tracks are. And about those owls- that's strange to hear, because I grew up in Wittenberg Valley around the Little Beaverkill (downstream Wilson State Park) - I'm almost 22 now- and I remember always hearing screaching owls, usually large white ones. Summer of 2007 was the loudest. One of my earliest memories of that land is the horrible scream of what we thought was a mountain lion- like some sort of demon ripping through the earth straight from hell.. it was pretty intense. When I was a child a friend of ours who lives on land higher up on Mt. Tremper reported seeing a mountain lion.. but as usual these are flat out denied claims. I'm obviously lying, right? :?

LOTS of coyotes and foxes in Wittenberg valley too... those coyotes can get pretty loud.
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mike
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Re: Black Bear Tracks? on Slide Mountain - September 2011

Unread post by mike »

Wittenburg would be considered part of the foothills to the mountains. Popular place for owls. There are also a lot of owls around the Ashokan Reservoir. Mainly Barred Owls, but some GHO's too.
mtnclimber
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Re: Black Bear Tracks? on Slide Mountain - September 2011

Unread post by mtnclimber »

Looks like a small black bear to me. Pretty good prints. Usually you don't see good prints unless it is in the snow.
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