Big-footed animal leaves unusual prints

It's been many years since we had a report that there might be a Big Foot living out here in Fish Springs. I got interested again this winter when we had some deep snow on the BLM hill that's behind our house. I saw lots of strange footprints that must have been caused by some kind of large animal.

Remember the 18-inch-long footprints that were discovered by our neighbor Tom Cleary while he was walking his dog in a canyon? Although that mystery was never solved, they were suspected human tracks and not animal tracks. Some neighbors discovered some very unusual and large footprints inside their fenced yard and they thought they might be those of a Sasquatch, an American Indian Big Foot. 

There were hundreds of big, deep footprints, but they were not the same as the original Big Foot. They were some sort of animal tracks and they seemed to be several different animals, as the footprints were various sizes, from about 14 to 26 inches long. The tracks in the snow appeared to have two large toes that didn't join and a heel as the bottom. The distance between each footprint was about 2 to 3 feet. Also there were small rabbit tracks near the larger tracks.

Our neighbor had a four-foot-high barbed wire fence and there was a pool of blood near the fence. It looked as if the animal jumped over the fence were there were more footprints on the other side. Trapper Travis French examined the deep impressions in the fresh snow and followed the animal tracks all over a 20-acre fenced yard in Fish Springs. One definite conclusion was that the tracks were made by more than one animal. He said due to the different sizes, they were probably made by from two to four different animals.

What kind of animals made those unusual prints? The trapper thought the tracks were made by very large snowshoe rabbits that live up in the nearby Pine Nut Mountains. He explained, "There's snow up there this winter and the food is scarce. The rabbits were adapting by coming down looking for food."

We do see small cottontails and big jackrabbits practically every day out here in Fish Springs. Often they've been hit by cars while crossing the many roads, but I've never seen a snowshoe rabbit before. According to my encyclopedia, snowshoe rabbits (or hares) are found mostly in northern North America and they have white fur in the winter and rusty brown for the summer and they also have very large, furred feet which allow them to hop across deep snow. I'll keep watching for them!

Linda Monohan may be reached at 782-5802.