Cave men were of course prodigiously good trackers – they needed to be to get food and to avoid being eaten by larger carnivores. So their caution is absolutely appropriate. The tracks are huge and staggered. The stride length suggests an animal with a body some 6 or 7 feet long. Going into the cave in search of it would be an act of supreme folly.
The tracks do not, of course, belong to the jackrabbit shown on the right of the drawing. Jackrabbits (and snowshoe hares, but it doesn’t look like the right environment for a hare) travel in a straight line, and their tracks are four very distinct impressions, with the very large back feet landing in front of the front feet, and the front feet offset, not parallel to each other (I’d send you a picture but you don’t seem to accept attachments).
Therefore one can only assume that the whatever-it-is inside the cave (possibly a primeval heffalump) came out of the cave ,looked round, and then went back in, and the rabbit is traveling in its tracks (energy conservation – good winter survival strategy).
Altogether a fascinating story – your caption doesn’t do it justice!
Cave men were of course prodigiously good trackers – they needed to be to get food and to avoid being eaten by larger carnivores. So their caution is absolutely appropriate. The tracks are huge and staggered. The stride length suggests an animal with a body some 6 or 7 feet long. Going into the cave in search of it would be an act of supreme folly.
The tracks do not, of course, belong to the jackrabbit shown on the right of the drawing. Jackrabbits (and snowshoe hares, but it doesn’t look like the right environment for a hare) travel in a straight line, and their tracks are four very distinct impressions, with the very large back feet landing in front of the front feet, and the front feet offset, not parallel to each other (I’d send you a picture but you don’t seem to accept attachments).
Therefore one can only assume that the whatever-it-is inside the cave (possibly a primeval heffalump) came out of the cave ,looked round, and then went back in, and the rabbit is traveling in its tracks (energy conservation – good winter survival strategy).
Altogether a fascinating story – your caption doesn’t do it justice!