The snow is wet, and my skunk ducked under the deck on his way across my property which muddied his feet a bit — perfect for leaving several sets of pretty clear tracks.

Along with the size of the tracks (1.5-2 inch long prints) one way to tell a skunk track is that the claws on the front feet are markedly longer. (They use them to dig for food–that’s how they tear up peoples’ lawns if they have grubs.) Skunks are also “pacers;” that refers to their gait and the way they place their feet. Pacers leave two rows of tracks, and each row has alternating front and back foot prints.

Usually you can see five toes on both the front and back feet of skunk tracks, but in some cases you can’t. In the tracks in this photo, only four toes show on the back foot print.

Here’s a great online resource for identifying animal tracks, and here’s another.