Footprints?

[Lukeyp23]

Hi guys,

After getting my greasy mitts on my first bits of kit, I was inspired you get out and have a wander. I went along to some land that the family own and took a shed load of pics of plants, flowers etc that i found. I also stumbled across this footprint which I think was left by a deer?? http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/forum/album.php?albumid=62&attachmentid=1282

...and some small hollows under a beech tree (approx 3"x1" and 1" deep) that look like they had been recently dug - just wondered if you could help me decide what was the culprit? Squirrel? http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/forum/album.php?albumid=62&attachmentid=1286

By all means have a nosey at the other pictures too...

Luke

[J_P]

Hey there, yup first is a deer poss fallow front, quick tip when you photo prints put something for scale next to it for size comparison, second yup prob squirrel there are beech terminal bud cases laying there so beech woodland so its a good chance it is, Happy tracking!

[Edwin]

Probably is a fallow. I use this book- Mammals of Britain: Their Tracks, Trails and Signs by Michael James Lawrence and Roy Walter Brown . Written some time ago but I like it particularly because it has much other info on mamals and shows their tracks natural size for direct comparison. Still available on Amazon. Incidentally a deer track is called a slot.

[basicbushcraft]

that looks it is fallow deer track pal

[Bushwhacker]

I'm just a keen amateur but this is my thought process;

It's an old track because there's a lot of debris in there and also the depth and splaying of the toes says it was made when the mud was soft - it has now hardened.
It would easier with some sense of scale, but you can make some "assumptions" and rule out some species too.
It would seem you're in deciduous woodland given the amount of light and the beech bud casings so I would rule out Red Deer (they prefer open moorland) also it looks nothing like Red Deer and also Sika (preferring darker conifer type forests).
CWD are most unlikely, so we're left with muntjac, fallow and roe.
At my first look, taking in the whole picture, I thought it was Roe Deer sized but that's only my thought.

If you know the area you may know what the most prevalent species is and that's what you should hedge your bets on.

And I'd agree with squirrel on the second one too.

Can't really say much more than that, not sure if it was even at all helpful! :)