“Do Those Prints Look “Foxy?” Tracking in Mono Cliffs Provincial Park
January 2025 Blog Post
On the weekend of January 11-12 2025, the Earthtracks Tracking Apprenticeship Group spent the weekend in the Orangeville area. On Sunday we spent the day at Mono Cliffs Provincial Park, where we wound up and down the limestone valleys and ridges, being led by the animals who had gone before us, including primarily white tailed deer, fox and coyote.
We had a close encounter with two deer who came upon where we were eating and were startled by our presence. It was fascinating to try to piece together the order of events based on the prints, and try to determine the root cause of the deer’s movement in the middle of the day.
Were they driven towards us by coyotes? Was one walking by when it picked up our scent and then became vigilant, bounding to get away from us? Was the second deer alerted by the first? Why did they run in opposite directions? There were so many beds! Somewhere between seven and nine, all within 50 m of our lunch fire. We’ll never know exactly what happened, but reviewing the movement of the deer and coyote by examining their tracks was an excellent exercise in looking for the wisdom of the tracks.
We also had several opportunities to observe places where deer had urinated on the trail. We enjoyed smelling the pine-scented urine, and postulated on which deposits had been made by bucks (in front of the hind legs), and does (between or just behind the hind legs).


Does appear to squat a bit more than bucks. Bucks seemed to “stretch out” their bodies a bit more than does while urinating. Think these pictures are both does.
While studying the deer sign was delightful (especially since it is my focal species), I was most interested in the coyote and red fox trails. So often, as I track these two species at home, it often takes me a bit of time to settle on which species I am actually observing.
As I have been well-taught by Alexis, Byron and now Rob Baker, the tracker must be wary of using single factor reasoning when looking at prints to decide on what species is being observed. When deciding between fox and coyote (two species commonly found in close association), there is sometimes overlap between print size, and fox and coyote use many, if not all of the same gaits.
This blog is an attempt for me to outline some of the distinguishing factors between these two species.
Starting with foot morphology. Fox and coyote are both canids and as such, both have four toes that usually register on both their front and hind feet. Both have feet that are symmetrical if bisected lengthwise. Both have front feet that are slightly larger than their hinds. The sizes of their feet can overlap because a small coyote and a large fox may have feet that are the same size. Both can appear to have an X in the negative space of their paws.
Their feet do, however, have some features which differ. The paws of the fox are much more furry than those of the coyote. While it is hard to see this in snow, it is often quite visible in mud. Fox prints, both front and back, appear to be circular, while coyote’s front feet tend to be rounder, and their hind feet more circular. Foxes have claws that are semi-protractable, so do not appear in prints as consistently as those of coyotes.

Another feature on prints of the front feet of the red fox, is a straight “bar” or “chevron” created by the backmost portion of the metacarpal pad. The bar/chevron is absent in coyote prints. Mark Elbroch writes that ‘this is a key feature for quick identification’.

As someone who has only been tracking for three years, I rarely actually have been able to see the chevron. As with the hair, it seems easier to find in mud than in other substrates. I sometimes see it in snow as well. As in all of the tracking, part of the science is knowing what to look for.
Ensuring I am not using single factor reasoning in identifying a species, my next step after looking at the prints of the animal, is to look at their gaits. Both fox and coyote have a baseline gait of direct register trot. Both will commonly side trot, and will move between other gaits depending on substrate and what they are up to (scouting, hunting, scent-marking and so on). The difference between the species should be their stride and trail width; because coyote are taller and have longer legs than fox, it stands to reason their strides will be longer and their trails wider.


Looking at trail width and stride length, though I find once again that there is overlap between the species, regardless of the gait. Measurements alone, it seems, cannot rule out one species or the other completely.
Another feature to consider is habitat. Once again we find that both species are generalists who thrive in a wide variety of habitats.
What about social behavior? Here is another factor to consider. Foxes, outside of breeding season, are usually more solitary than coyotes. Coyotes, although they may sometimes live alone, are more frequently found in packs. At Mono Cliffs all of the coyote sign we observed appeared to be from multiple animals. The fox, however, seemed to be alone.
A sure fire way to tell apart these canines is through their urine. Coyote urine, in my experience, really just smells like dog urine. Fox urine, on the other hand smells very much like a skunk.
So how to tell the difference between these two in the absence of urine?
Alexis likes to say that fox prints are more “dainty”. He’ll also say, “that looks more foxy to me’.
Until the day comes that I can look at a trail and say “that looks foxy”, I’ll have to rely on a combination of all the features above and more, to figure out who is at the end of that line of canine tracks ahead of me on the path.
Diana
All photos taken by me.