While in the woods at the "Little Red Schoolhouse" preserves we discovered animal tracks in the mud on the trails that were deeper in the woods. They were not Coyote tracks, but did display pad and nail impressions. They were rather large - near to the size of the palm of my hand with a rather raised impression around the pad indentation. What is out there in the woods that would make this track...it would be rather large and heavy. Are there badgers in Illinois? What could it have been?

My first guess would be dog tracks. They look similar to coyote tracks but are more round and often much larger. If you can get a digital photo and e-mail it to me we can probably identify the animal to species. Putting a ruler next to the tracks helps in the ID process. There are badgers in Illinois, but their tracks are much different than coyote tracks.