A Mystery in the Snow

What the heck made this track?

Whilst the hubster and I were out cavorting around in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan this past weekend, we happened upon some tracks in the snow, shown in the pic to the left.  We couldn't figure out what made these snow tracks so I took a photo in hopes that someone might know.  And since this is W/E Wednesday I decided that I'd bring it up.  I showed this to my brother who's big on hunting, fishing and all those nature-type pursuits and was sure that he'd be able to identify them but he wasn't sure. As you can see, it doesn't appear to be of a creature walking or even running but more of a hopping type  movement.  I looked up tracks on Google and couldn't come up with anything definitive...maybe a hare? The individual track is about a foot and a half to two feet long.  We know there are bobcats in the area but that seems too small for that...or so we assume.  Bah!  If anyone out there can identify these tracks I will deem you H.M.  King or Queen of Supreme Snow Print Identifiers, T.E.  Ooo, another mystery for you to figure out with the title initials, but I actually

The possible answer to our mystery print?

know the answer and I'll tell you later!

Well, then I was thinking perhaps it was a Yeti as the area we were in was swampy and foresty and there was a bit of snow.  It sure seems to match up with the photo I discovered to the right.  I would have to assume that our Yeti would have had a sore foot as the tracks only showed one "foot", although I feel sorry for the suspect Yeti as his or her foot seems quite oddly shaped, almost like a giant chicken foot.

It could be a killer...

This speculation lead me to check out Yeti Chickens on Google and this suspicious looking character popped up.  The tracks look similar although, I admit, much smaller, which means our culprit would have to be a much larger variety of  White Silkie Chicken.  Oh, perhaps a genetically modified Silkie, breed for gargantuan drumsticks, that happened to escape it's cavernous coop in search of mass quantities of feed...oooo dear, the tracks, as I'm thinking about it, were heading in the direction of a nearby feed store!

All I have to say is please, PLEASE someone help identify the snow tracks or I will start having nightmares of a mythical, maniacal, mammoth Yeti-chicken invading Northern Michigan and, yes, maybe even YOUR backyard.  I implore you to comment below if you can shed any glimmer of light whatsoever onto the Mystery in the Snow.

And now the answer to the H.M. and T.E. puzzle as promised earlier.  The initials are in reference to a character from the Oz books (as in Wizard of Oz, but there are many more books in the Oz series), H.M. Wogglebug, T.E., the former initials standing for Highly Magnified and the latter for Thoroughly Educated.  You can learn something new everyday if you try, eh?

Highly Magnified Wogglebug, Thoroughly Educated