Photo: Cryptid Paw Print - South-Central Poland

(click images for larger version)
(Blue: my foot (EU size 46), Red: cryptid print, Green: large dog's print)
(My foot: 11 Cm, paw width: 15.8295238 Cm, paw height: 13.0952381 Cm)

I received an email on Friday from Alex Pietrow who is in Janików, Poland (south-central remote area) visiting relatives. He states:

I have stumbled onto something...giant footprint of some unidentified animal.

Unidentified paw print In the link, I have uploaded the picture of the paw print I have found.

Janików, Poland - Google Maps

The exact location was here:

Location of paw print - Google Maps
Near the "bump" the road makes there was a muddy piece of dirt...this is where I found the prints.

The only non paranormal animal that I can think of would be a bear but they don't live in this part of Poland nor do they wonder so far outside the woods. I've asked around and no one has ever seen a bear here. But this also doesn't really look like a bear print. bear print

My best guess would be that its an ABC.

I emailed the following:

Hi Alex...from the size and shape of the print, I'd have to say it's a large cat species...maybe a European Lynx. Poland has had an excellent record of reintroducing species and currently have several cat species roaming in the national parks system. There were several 'big cat' reports in March 2009 in a few locations in Poland...I don't know the specifics. If a cryptid cat is roaming in the Janikow area, there may be a very good explanation for it...Lon

Alex wrote back: I showed it to the locals and they kind of went into panic because they think its the "czarna łapa" (black paw) a local legend about a black beast that lives in the woods and devours kids. It's usually told to children to scare them but they seemed scared themselves to. They are all pretty much sure that there are no lynxes here since there are no real forests around here.

NOTE: if anybody has a reasonable identification of this paw print, I'd appreciate a comment...Lon