Tracks found in dirt road in Joshua tree forest, southern Nevada, January 4. Can you identify them without clicking through to the Flickr site?

Update: obviously *I* couldn’t. The caption has been corrected.

1. 
   Rachel Shaw 2010 01 06 at 2:37:18 am

   Roadrunner!

2. 
   Jack Matthews 2010 01 06 at 9:08:54 am

   Good show and quiz.  I missed the identification.  I’m composing a post about my rescue of a roadrunner this summer that had fallen (?) into one of our stock tanks.  Roadrunners are huge birds.  I want you to read the post when I put it up—probably in a couple of weeks.  Always like your work.

3. 
   Silver Fox 2010 01 09 at 4:49:09 pm

   I’d have to guess roadrunner, which I haven’t seen for some number of years. And I don’t think I’ve ever spotted any tracks before, but didn’t know until today what to look for!

4. 
   english 2010 01 11 at 3:11:38 pm

   was going to guess chukar. (oops)

   I guess that curved toe seems something to look for.

5. 
   Jafafa Hots 2010 01 11 at 4:19:14 pm

   The dead giveaway is the sign saying “Free Acme Birdseed” just outside of the frame.

6. 
   Chris Clarke 2010 01 11 at 4:31:35 pm

   It was a confusing sign, though, because someone had just crossed out “Mumia Abu Jamal” and written in “Acme Birdseed” in crayon.

7. 
   Chris Clarke 2010 01 11 at 4:41:48 pm

   And actually, I am afraid I got the ID wrong after all. One of you got it right.

8. 
   Hank Fox 2010 01 11 at 4:54:04 pm

   Obviously Roadrunnerus supersonicus. As seen in the many Warner Brothers documentaries.

9. 
   jason 2010 01 11 at 6:35:47 pm

   I’d be most interested in seeing chukar tracks with the inward facing toe that has such a lengthy gain on the other toes.  That’s always been a roadrunner sign—the inward curve, not to mention the length discrepancy.

   Not to say it can’t be the other.  Introduced species aren’t my specialty, mind you.  Still, I’m hard pressed to see it.  Ugh!  I hate signs of aliens and their oft confusing ways…

10. 
    Chris Clarke 2010 01 11 at 8:24:45 pm

    My impression was that these had the wrong number of back toes to be roadrunner. Namely, not two.

11. 
    jason 2010 01 11 at 8:50:05 pm

    Two forward and two backward for roadrunners.  How right you are.  And now I feel like a dimwit, which is a good thing since it proves a certain consistency on my part.

12. 
    Sven DiMilo 2010 01 12 at 12:52:15 am

    damn it, I knew that too.
    Zygodactylus is the jargon.