Bear tracks?

It's late October as I post this image. We've had a couple of good snows here in Anchorage already, but the snow has mostly melted from my suburban yard. Our home is not far from Cook Inlet, so we're close to sea level and our snow levels reflect that elevation. Up on the mountains, at the higher elevations, there's plenty of snow already and it's here to stay.

The other day, when we still had melting snow in the yard, I noticed a bunch of animal tracks in my front yard. The moose tracks were plentiful, including what appeared to be two sets of moose tracks passing across the driveway. It was a bit hard to tell at a glance because our driveway is paved asphalt. That day the driveway was clear of snow except for where the animal(s) had passed. You could see the tracks in the yard leading to the driveway followed by tracks of snow across the otherwise clear driveway and then tracks in the snow on the other side of the driveway. You could drive down the street and see that the animal(s) had cruised through the neighboring yards in the same fashion--through the yard, across the driveway, on to the next yard and so on. It was easy to imagine a pair of moose just ambling along, nibbling at various trees and shrubs as they worked their way through the yards.

So then I happened to look out my front window and was a bit startled to see the track you see above. Does that look like a moose print to you? No? Me neither. The shot is terrible, but it's honest--no retouching or enhancing--and the size of the print is comparable to a man's outstretched hand.

In case you're curious, this is about what a moose track looks like:



So maybe it was a bear and maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was a bear following a moose or mooses. There's not a good plural for moose. My wife and I call them moosers in fun, as in "I saw some moosers on the way to the store."

Interestingly, on the far side of the driveway you could see the moose tracks departing and you could see other tracks near the moose tracks. They may have also been moose tracks, but they were about the size of a paper plate. I didn't examine them closely when I had a chance. Until I found the possible bear track, I just figured they were more moose tracks.

So who knows? Interesting life here in Alaskan suburbia.

I'll leave you with a sunrise shot I took from our house. Those are the Chugach Mountains in the background.

Take care,
-M