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Mystery hoofed animal

 
Mike Haasl
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Something left hundreds of hoof prints in my dad's back yard.  He thinks it was 5 critters.  It's a relatively wet site and the prints are up to 4" deep.  Deer usually don't leave a track and they have plenty of experience with deer.  I don't want to give the location so that it doesn't distract the options but it is in the midwest USA.

Most common large herbivores in the region are deer and cows.
Ibex-prints-.jpg
Ibex prints?
Ibex prints?
Herd-of-yaks-.jpg
Herd of yaks?
Herd of yaks?

"Hundreds of years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the type of car I drove... But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that it becomes a tourist destination"

 
Lorinne Anderson
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Hmmmm, what is common there?

Domestic: goats, sheep, pigs
Wild: deer, pig/boar, elk, moose, antelope, bison

What is the size, and were there any droppins or evidence of browsing? Diet might offer some clues.

Lorinne Anderson: Specializing in sick, injured, orphaned and problem wildlife for over 20 years.

 
Douglas Alpenstock
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I think it's a sasquatch who's bored and messin' with you for laughs.
 
Mike Haasl
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I'm checking on the size of the prints.  I'll report back with that detail.

Most common mammals in the area are humans, followed by deer and holsteins.  

"Hundreds of years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the type of car I drove... But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that it becomes a tourist destination"

 
John Weiland
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Any rooting that would indicate pigs?  Just note that this link is from 2005 so the spread of their species could be farther now....

https://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/html/stories/2005/aug05/hogs.htm

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

 
Douglas Alpenstock
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Holsteins are more likely.

But there is a precedent:
“In that case,” said Holmes, rising, “I think that my friend and I can congratulate ourselves upon several most happy results from our little visit to the North. There is one other small point upon which I desire some light. This fellow Hayes had shod his horses with shoes which counterfeited the tracks of cows. Was it from Mr. Wilder that he learned so extraordinary a device?”

The Duke stood in thought for a moment, with a look of intense surprise on his face. Then he opened a door and showed us into a large room furnished as a museum. He led the way to a glass case in a corner, and pointed to the inscription.

“These shoes,” it ran, “were dug up in the moat of Holdernesse Hall. They are for the use of horses; but they are shaped below with a cloven foot of iron, so as to throw pursuers off the track. They are supposed to have belonged to some of the marauding Barons of Holdernesse in the Middle Ages.”

“The Adventure of the Priory School” -  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I kid, I kid. It is the silly hour here. :-)
 
Mike Haasl
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He measured them at approximately 3.5" long and 4" wide.  Our current guess is cows but it's pretty rare to have loose cows in this area.  But more likely than a moose, elk or ibex.  No rooting or browsing, they just passed through the back yard.

"Hundreds of years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the type of car I drove... But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that it becomes a tourist destination"

 
John Weiland
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Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

I kid, I kid. It is the silly hour here. :-)



Speaking of the silly hour, I once came home from work to find a car driving very slowly down our gravel road (public) in front of our house.  When I pulled into our driveway from behind the car, it hit the brakes and a guy got out inquiring about the massive hoof prints on the road, thinking it would be his prize buck the coming fall hunting season!

:-)

Turns out, my wife had been walking a large Hampshire hog back to the property on that road....and the tracks had him pretty hopped up!  LOL

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

 
Lorinne Anderson
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Might be worth doing a "Google Earth" look a your neighbors - might show WHO has hoofed livestock...and then maybe a phone call to see if they know they are going "walk-about"!

Lorinne Anderson: Specializing in sick, injured, orphaned and problem wildlife for over 20 years.

 
Mike Haasl
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There are farms a half mile away.  But they're on a peninsula in a lake so the cows were on a fun walk.  Or moose...

"Hundreds of years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the type of car I drove... But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that it becomes a tourist destination"

 
Lorinne Anderson
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TRAILCAM TIME!

Lorinne Anderson: Specializing in sick, injured, orphaned and problem wildlife for over 20 years.

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