UPDATE: I’ve put Christopher’s response below in the comments; it’s #20.
Reader Christopher Moss sent this snow conundrum, and I’ll supply the answer in the comments at 11 a.m. Chicago time. Here’s the picture and the query, whose answer of course involves an animal.
My front deck with two inches of fluffy snow that fell yesterday. Ignoring the holes from drips off the roof that are seen at the bottom, do you see the chain-like raided elliptical blobs of snow, each with a longitudinal fracture down its centre? That’s the puzzle!
Looks like something small and hectic scurried about under the snow. Maybe a rodent of some sort.
A snow mole-bile.
A vole herd that gopher’d’it while snow’s fresh.
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Swordfight. At least one person was left-handed.
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Inconceivable!
“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die” 🙂
As in completely dead? Or just mostly dead?
Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!
Chipmunk?
Vole or mouse under the snow.
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Looks like Frosty could use some fiber in his diet.
Nailed it.
😀
You have my vote.
Mouse?
They look like cloven hoof prints. So theory 1 : they are older than the snow around them as they were compressed, froze, the surrounding snow melted/blew away, and then a light snow fell. Theory 2: beelzebub, he of the cloven hoof, walking on the roof of hell, leaving indentations that poke through.
I like it
Pathway is not regular enough I think
Snake skin that has been shed?
The ovals with the longitudinal lines do look a lot like some snake scales, don’t they?
Don’t think they’d ever line up that way on a snake, though.
Cloven hoof? The very devil himself! As we do not know the country it is tricky. Very close together for a deer – even a muntjac or Chinese water deer that we have in parts of England now. Small though…
I give up!
Is it deep snow or shallow? If deep a hopping bird?
No idea…
It is small mice traveling under the snow. Sometimes after a lot of snow has finally melted you will see the trails on the ground where the mice traveled under the snow.
I think I see that after our snow melts. Little tunnels thru the grass, with the grass arcing over.
I’m going with the small critter beneath the snow hypothesis. Doesn’t seem like they could be foot prints on top of the snow. The marks are pretty much single file instead of double file as you would expect for foot prints on top of the snow.
Instead the marks look like something moving beneath the snow with a gait that involves repetitive arching and extension of the spine, leaving regularly spaced hollows that are large enough in relation to the thickness of the snow to partially collapse.
Fell off an overhanging wire?
Shaken by a bird or squirrel. That is the animal part.
I would go with the tunnel under the snow hypothesis, where the critter intermittently pops up a little. There is a thin crust of snow on top, so the effect is to pop up an oval bit of crust, which fractures down its length.
Sorry to come here for an issue not related to this topic. When I tried to access the comments about the Saudi Arabian woman who was arrested, I was not able to access them to read or leave a comment.What am I doing wrong?!
I also got “Not found” when I tried to access it. I will try again later, to make sure there isn’t more to this than a temporary glitch that needs to be addressed!
Same here. “not found”
It may be that Jerry accidentally posted the article before he was done with it, noticed it, then took it back down. I vaguely remember something like that happening once in the past. If that’s the case it will likely be back up shortly.
Or even the next day. Yes, these things happen when you’re subscribed by email. Patience! 🙂
I’m going to withhold judgement until more evidence has been gathered. 8)
You are supposed to say, “we don’t know what it is, therefore Goddidit.”, and forget about bothering to gather more evidence.
Evidently.
A mouse that pokes up to the surface once in a while. I frequently find mouse trails under deep snow in Michigan
Here’s the answer from the photographer:
“…the usual ‘lolloping’ motion, with his back pushing up a mushroom of snow at each little jump.”
Great description! 🙂
I was sure it had to be a burrowing rodent but was hung up on the longitudinal fractures you pointed out. Interesting that whatever forces act on those “mushrooms” split the snow so precisely. Gonna be on the lookout for that in my snow-rodent-burrows from now on.
I also was hung up on the fractures running along the centre of the mounds, which make each lump look like the cast of a ladybird-like beetle; the type with two wings on their back. I thought that might be what the central fractures were, but obviously they’d have to be pretty damn big beetles, so that ruled that out.
Anyone know why those fractures are there then?
The Devil!