merit badge question

[tfarmer]

Our boys got the heritage merit badge for tracking. I can't figure out what animal is on it. It looks like a mangy yellow dog, but has a lion tail. Is it a mountain lion?

[oldisnewagain1]

That's an easy one... it's a northern snow chupacabra (This message has been edited by oldisnewagain1)

[Oak Tree]

I had not thought about how odd that image was.

 

Are we encouraging our Scouts to go track mountain lions? That would seem, shall we say, sure to violate some G2SS rule, you'd think.

 

I am guessing mountain lion for the animal despite some of the oddities about the image. It's a very long tail, and a mountain lion is really the only North American animal that comes to mind that would have an extra long, black-tipped tail.

[tfarmer]

Thanks oldisnewagain1, I should have known that. Sometimes, I think the meritbadge designer made this animal up just to mess with us.

[shortridge]

Blame the graphic designers of the 1930s (or before? not sure). The MB isn't a new design - it's just a revamp of the old.

 

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Stalking2.JPG

[neil_b]

I imagine the image has something to do with a cat stalking its prey, not a scout stalking a big cat.

[AK-Eagle]

At the time the badge was designed it was called the "Stalking" Merit Badge, not a good term today I suppose. ;-)