Raccoon Tracks – Identification

Q: The attached photos are of animal tracks I found following the snow. I can’t identify them. Can you help?

A: Let’s do some eliminating first: they’re not dog or cat tracks because those animals have only four toes that touch the ground and I see five distinct toes in your pictures.

It’s not a possum because their feet are so much smaller than the ones in your photos, plus possum back feet have a distinct “thumb”, unlike your tracks.

That leaves one conclusion: raccoon.

In fact, I seem to see some smaller tracks beside the bigger ones. Maybe this was a mama raccon and her kit wandering around looking for something to eat.