Are these tracks in the mud tortoise/turtle tracks?
I was having a nice evening walk near one of the nature reservations in Andover MA, close to Tewksbury, when I've found such a footprint. I'm really sorry for image quality, though. So it's a wet, bog-like, piece of ground, two lanes of deep small holes (probably the actual footprints) - the distance between them is like 25-30 centimeters (10-12 inches) - and the ground in the middle looks like something was dragged. In the top left corner of a picture the ground seems to be pushed below, and the hole is filled with water.
I'm not from US, and have almost no idea about Massachusetts fauna, but to me it looks like a tortoise. It was lying on the ground, thinking it's slow thoughts - that's how the hole filled with water appeared - then it decided to do some action, got up and moved, dragging it's plastron upon the ground.
That's the best idea I have. But it should be pretty big tortoise, 10-12 inches wide. I wonder if there are any in MA. Does anyone recognize this footprint?
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1 answer
This does look like some sort of turtle. Snapping turtles can easily get to the size you mention, and are fairly common. The picture doesn't give the impression the tracks are really 10 inches apart. They seem narrower than that, which would open the possibility for a number of other turtles. Box turtles get to a reasonable size, and then there are a list of other more rare possibilities.
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