Can you ID this animal track?

[JDgreen227]

There was a dusting of snow overnight, and about a half hour ago I went out to the road for the newspaper and spotted these weird tracks. Not much snow, so not much detail, but the paw prints are a little bigger than the plastic screw on top of a gallon milk jug, and seven inches between the prints on each side of the groove. I am thinking a possum dragging it's tail?

 

[RobertBrown]

Could there possibly be an otter near you? Is there any rivers or large lakes in your immediate vicinity?
Could be an opossum. Seems like I usually see them with the tail off the ground.
That tail mark is not consistent so maybe the end of tail was curled as an opossum's is.
The paw prints look to be from a round, possibly webbed foot but it could be that the snow has melted a bit causing this.

 

[JDgreen227]

Thanks for your input...the nearest decent sized lake is about 10 miles away, and the closest branch of a river is at least 3 miles north. The only nearby water would be the drainage ditch a half mile to the south, and the tracks I followed came from the north. I have never even thought there might be any otters in this area.

 

[arrow]

This is a baby tyrannosaurus. You are very lucky.....for now.
Possums usually do not drag their tails. I'd guess a muskrat. They do drag their tails at times.

 

[JDgreen227]

I don't recall ever seeing a muskrat around here...woodchucks and raccoons and possums and skunks and deer, quite frequently. If you suspect the tracks are from a baby dinosaur, I will keep the cats indoors for now. Thanks for the tip. :laughing:

 

[powerpace]

Muskrat.

 

[arrow]

I don't recall ever seeing a muskrat around here...woodchucks and raccoons and possums and skunks and deer, quite frequently. If you suspect the tracks are from a baby dinosaur, I will keep the cats indoors for now. Thanks for the tip. :laughing:

I'd been living at my place for 22 years. Then one day out of the blue, I hear a noise under my work bench in the garage. I see this snake like tail and I'm thinking"this is the biggest rat known to man" I plug it a couple of times with a 22 magnum and that's when I found the first muskrat I had seen in all that time. Have not seen one since 17 years later.

 

[RobertBrown]

adds up...except for the lack of water. We don't have Muskrats around here, but I've lived were they do and they don't stray far from a large body of water, it's an aquatic rodent.....your neighbor got pet muskrat? Or a very strange looking poodle.....

 

[Clumber]

Looks like a lizard track. See example at:
ARKive - Little white whiptail videos, photos and facts - Aspidoscelis gypsi

 

[Tollster]

Its hard to say, but muskrats do drag their tails when on land and can roam pretty far from a water source prior to mating, they mostly take longer trips in the cover of darkness, particularly in unfamiliar areas. Opposum's on the other hand, drag their tale when moving slow, but hold it up when walking. I lean towards the rat.