Mysterious tracks at bottom of swimming pool - baffled!

[surreysteve]

Hiya

We found the tracks at the bottom of our swimming pool (please see attached pic). They were made in a thin layer of green algae that has formed at the base of the pool. The pool is 8' deep.

There appears to be two types of track although both were undoubtedly made by the same creature as they appeared on the same night. The creature eventually made it's way round the perimiter of the bottom of the pool and climbed up the stone steps and back into the garden. The tracks are 4-5" wide and there is little evidence of other disruption to the algae.

I have shown several people and none of us can think of a creature that would a) be able to 'walk' on bottom of pool b) survive underwater for 1-2 mins c) Could walk up the steps and back onto dry land

All help welcomed as this is baffling us!

[N0z]

Are you in the UK and tbh i have no clue, how much water is currently in there, is it full to the brim with water ?

[DorsetDunk]

very mysterious indeed ,they are too uniform for paw prints. it looks to me that something slithered along the bottom and they are the muscle tracks from a snakes underbelly,have your neighbours reported losing a python? :-)
if not then i think it must be a grass snake although they don't hunt at night but if the weather was warm it might have started hunting early in the morning and they can hold the breath for a long time underwater
well that's my guess though i might be completely wrong and it turns out to be a water pixie on a push bike

[surreysteve]

Thanks for replies so far.

To answer questions so far - we are in N.Hampshire UK and the pool is in a large woodland garden. The pool has at least 6-7' of water in at this point.

The 'different' tracks can be seen leading up to the centre top of the picture - the creature was clearly moving slightly differently here as the impressions are lighter and further apart.

The snake guess is interesting - is a snakes body sufficiently dense that it would drop right to the bottom of the pool and stay there?

Any further thoughts welcomed?

[htcdude]

Hi surreysteve,

Welcome to the forum

Not sure on the tracks, I'll have a look in my 'Tracks and Footprints' book when I get home if no one has an answer by then

But there is a big shadow of some sort on the left, looks almost human like, maybe that's your culprit!

Hope you find an answer!

Nige

[GCN lova]

grass snakes hunt underwater for frogs and newts and fish so it could be one but sometimes they just swim on the surface.

[JohanJ]

Hm, I've only ever seen grass snakes swim on the top, not crawl along the bottom

My profoundly uninformed guess would have to be a big fat toad

[Marineboy]

I reckon its a toad - I can almost imagine a large toad sinking to the bottom and "walking" along. A frog I feel is too lightweight to leave tracks like that and they tend to do their two legged kicks anyway.
I can't think that a snake would leave such "footprints".

As for the water pixie on a push bike - surely it's too late in the year for them?

[DorsetDunk]

it could well be a toad certainly the are very active at night but would the hind feet splay out further than the fore?
it just looks to uniform to me that why i was thinking snake or perhaps an eel
the difference in impressions could be due to the buoyancy of the creature as it prepared to rise to the surface

[surreysteve]

Thanks for replies and ideas so far. I've attached a zoomed pic which shows the two different types of track more clearly.

I will try to get a real close-up today that gives a little more detail for you experts out there.

Steve