Six Arts of Tracking
Interpreting Wildlife Tracks and Sign
I strapped on my snowshoes and headed down the trail. A friend and I were at a popular trailhead in the Cascade Mountains. Snowshoers, cross country skiers and snowmobiles used the trail. As we made our way down the trail, I observed dog tracks everywhere, along with their many scats near the trailhead where they had vacated their bowels after rides in the car. Great, I thought as we headed out, not much chance of seeing any interesting wildlife sign here. Most large wild animals avoid areas that are heavily used by dogs. About a quarter of mile from the trailhead, we came to a small dip in the trail, and a small meadow. I noticed a track in the snow that left the snowmobile trail and headed across the meadow. The trail looked about the right size for a dog trail, but the trail did not appear to circle back and join the snowmobile trail like most dog trails would as the dog returned to its owner from an exploratory jaunt off trail. We tromped over to the side of the trail to look at the tracks. At first they did look a bit like dog tracks, but then we realized that the tracks had five toes. The hind track was also not shaped like a dog track, but more like a small bear track. The tracks were also moving in a gait that a dog would rarely use in the deep snow off the side of the trail. After following the trail for a few feet and measuring the length and width of the tracks, we had to conclude that the tracks were left by a wolverine! We were surprised because wolverines were not “official” residents of Washington State at that time. The tracks were undeniable; there was really nothing else they could be. We followed those tracks for the rest of the day as the wolverine traveled up and around the side of a mountain. We headed toward home as the sky grew dark, feeling lucky and much richer for the experience we had had. One never knows what might be found written in the snow landscape.
As you glide across the winter landscape on your skis, or tromp through the hills and forests on your snowshoes, you may chance upon some tracks in the snow. Tracks you find may be slight feather markings on the surface of the snow, or small punctuation marks that lead across the surface of the snow, or deep holes that sink far below the surface. Perhaps there are no marks on the snow at all. Perhaps there is a pile of cone scales at the base of a Douglas-fir tree, or the surface of the snow is covered with the tips of fir branches. All of these things are tracks or sign, and each of them tells you the story of the place you are passing through. The events of the recent and distant past are written in the snow and on the landscape for all who are interested and aware enough to read them.
As you observe these tracks and sign as you move across the landscape, one might wonder about what created the marks, dropped the fir braches, or left the cone scales. That is good, because one of the first skills to learning tracking is to ask questions. Lots of them. Because the more questions you ask, the more answers you will get. There are six main questions to ask yourself about any given track or sign that you observe. These are: who, what, when, why, where and how.
The first question, who, refers to identification. Who has passed this way? Who has eaten this willow branch? Who has left this scat full of hair and serviceberry seeds? Identification focuses not just on footprints, but on all manner of sign, from pushed down grasses to scats or droppings. Snow can make identification very easy. In shallow wet snow it is possible to get perfect prints where every detail of the track is visible. Snow can also make identification very difficult. In deep or powdery snow one often encounters a hole in the snow with no detail in the bottom of the hole, if the bottom of the whole can even be found.
In general, there are a few things to keep in mind when trying to identify a set of tracks. The first and perhaps most important thing to know is what animals are in the area. Consult a good field guide with range maps to learn this information. Petersons Field Guide to Mammals is a good one. I usually make a list whenever I go to a new geographic area. For example, the tracks of many rabbits and hares look similar. If I find a set of lagomorph (rabbit or hare) tracks in the Methow Valley I can be 90% sure that they are snowshoe hare tracks because that is the only rabbit or hare species that is recorded to exist in the Methow. Why only 90% sure? Because it is the only recorded species, and the ranges of animals shift and change over time as ecological factors change. A tracker must always keep his or her mind open to the possibility of something new and different being where it is not expected it to be. Knowing the animals in or out of your area can significantly narrow down the possible identity of your track. Keep in mind this list may change due to the season. For example, one is unlikely to find bear tracks in the winter because they are not usually active during the winter months.
The next thing to pay attention to is the relative size of the animal leaving the track. What is the size of the track? Measuring the length of the track at the longest point and the width at the widest point can help you to figure out what size creature you are looking at. Additionally, pay attention to the size of the spaces between the tracks, and to the width of the trail overall. These things will help you to narrow down the possibilities further, and will give you the needed information to look up what you have found in a good field guide. For example, a coyote and a wolf both show four toes on the front track and four toes on the rear with claws showing, but a coyote has tracks around two inches long and about an 18 inch trotting stride, while a wolf has tracks around four inches long and a 30 inch or higher trotting stride.
Pay attention to the foot morphology , or the form and structure of the foot, as it shows in the track. How many toes show in the track? Do the front and rear tracks look different? Do claws show in the track? What is the shape of the heel pad? For example cats have roundish tracks and a heel pad that is large compared to the rest of the track, while dogs have more egg shaped tracks and have a heel pad that is smaller in relation to the rest of the foot.
Finally pay attention to the pattern of the tracks. Animals move in different ways that are characteristic, and that can help with identification. More on that later.
The next question to keep in mind is what. What is the question of interpretation. What is this animal doing? One way to answer this question is to study the gait of the animal. A gait is a method of movement, such as walking. All animals use different gaits for different activities, just as humans do. We walk slowly, we walk fast, we jog, run, sprint, crawl, limp, drag our feet, etc. And we only have two legs! Each of these methods of locomotion has a reason causing its use. For example, if someone is jogging, they could be getting exercise, they could be traveling to a distant appointment they are late to, or they may want to get some distance between themselves and something else relatively quickly without putting to much energy into it.
Each animal has a gait that it uses most of the time. Deer walk most of the time, coyotes trot, rabbits bound. One can learn what each of these gaits looks like for each animal. One can also recognize when an animal is out of its normal gait. When an animal is out of its normal gait, there is usually a reason for it. It could be hunting. It could be running away from something. It could be acting cautious. It could be feeding. Or it could be trying to conserve energy while walking in deep snow. Gaits can be complicated. It takes a while to learn what you are looking at. A good place to start is to learn to tell the difference between left and right sides of the body, and front and rear feet. I suggest getting down on all fours and acting out what you see on the ground, placing your hands and feet where the pattern of the tracks shows the fronts and rears to be. A good field guide such as Petersons Field Guide to Animal Tracks or Mark Elbrochs Mammal Tacks and Sign can help you learn on your own, or better yet, a class with a tracking instructor will give you a big leg up on recognizing the patterns of different gaits.
The next question, when, is an interesting and challenging question to answer. When did this animal or person pass this way? When was this tree rubbed by the buck? To answer this question one must study the weather, and the substrate the track or sign was left in. Wind blows snow into the track, and obscures tracks left in powdery snow. Fresh snow fills in the tracks, and rain melts and erodes them. The sun and temperature melt and refreeze the track, changing its size and shape. Some things to pay attention to are the sides and bottom of the tracks, as well as the area around the track. In a fresh track the sides and the grains of snow around the track will be loose and able to move. As time goes on, the tracks will solidify, and small chunks of snow and crust knocked free will stick to the rest of the snow. The best way to learn aging is to set aside an area of snow (or whatever substrate you want to learn in) and make marks in it at regular intervals of time, such as once a day, or once every six hours. Keep a log of the weather during the time that you are making the marks. When you return to your marks to make a new one, note what the weather has been since the last mark was made. Record the temperature, the wind direction and relative intensity, humidity, precipitation, and cloud cover. Also record whether or not the marks have been in the sun or the shade. Study the marks and compare the similarities and differences. Look at the marks from all different angles. Touch the walls of the marks. Make some marks with twisting motions or motions that will throw snow outside the track walls. Slowly a picture will develop in your mind of how the track changes over time. It is difficult to describe the aging process. It is a process that has to be seen over and over, and eventually it sinks in to the brain. Initially focus on the difference between fresh and old tracks. This is an important and basic skill in tracking. Tracks can last a surprisingly long time if conditions are right. If you want to find the animal you are tracking, you must know how to differentiate between fresh and old tracks. Finer details in aging will come with more time and experience. To learn aging of vegetation make a similar type of area, and cut, break, abrade, or rub the vegetation depending on what kind of mark you want to learn. Return at regular intervals and make a new break or cut and compare it to the first one. Note color and moisture changes. Pay attention to how the weather changes during the time period that you are looking at your marks. Dry weather will cause aging to proceed differently than wet weather, cold winter weather will change the aging process compared to warm spring weather. Sun falling directly on the tracks or sign will also have a big effect.
The next question has to do with the ecology. Why is this animal here doing what it is doing? Wild animals are closely linked to the physical environment in which they live. They depend on it for all their survival needs. Wild animals are constantly trying to conserve energy. They have to “work” for a living, in other words, they have to find all of their own food, unlike their domestic counterparts. Therefore, any given set of tracks usually has some purpose associated with it. The animal is there for some reason related to survival. Look up and around at the place you are tracking in and ask yourself some of the following questions. What does this animal need to survive? What does it eat? Where does it get its water? Where is the nearest place it can find these things? What about danger? Who is this animal afraid of? What does it need to feel safe? Is there something in the area that draws this animal here? Is it seeking shade, warmth, or areas away from people or dogs? What kinds of things are important in this animal’s life right now? Is it mating season? Pregnant? Raising young? Getting ready for hibernation? These things all affect animal behavior and will cause them to move around the landscape. Reading and learning about animals before you get outside can help a lot with these questions. Look at your list of species for the area you are in and learn the following things about them. Size, main foods, social habits, mating season, number of young and when born, enemies, and general habits. Petersons Field Guide to Mammals is a good one to get much of this information from.
How does it feel to be this animal? Although we can never truly know what it is like to be another animal, it is a useful thing to attempt when tracking. In order to interpret events, one must “put on the mind” of the animal you are tracking. Imagine yourself as the animal. Put yourself in the animal’s skin and become the creature. This is an essential skill when trailing in difficult terrain. It allows the tracker to predict where an animal is going and to pick the track up after losing it or crossing a difficult area to find tracks in. To become good at this, pretend. Kids are really good at this; most kids pretend they are an animal at some point or another. Return to your childhood and allow yourself to pretend that you are a cougar, or a deer. What would you do? Where would you go? Get in touch with how you feel about different parts of the landscape as this animal. Does that thick tangle of brush over there feel comforting or ominous? A rabbit might find comfort in thick tangle of brush, while a coyote might choose to avoid such an area.
Where is this animal coming from, and where is it going? Following the animal, or trailing, is one of the most interesting aspects of tracking. When people think of tracking, trailing is what they picture. Hunters, biologists, photographers and wildlife enthusiasts all will be interested in the question of where the animal is now, and where it came from. Many of the different arts of tracking come together in this art. If you wish to find a certain animal you must be able to identify its tracks, determine if they are fresh or old, and follow the trail. In difficult conditions, knowing what the animal was doing, why it is there, and knowing how the animal thinks will help the tracker to stay on the trail. Winter is a great time for trailing because it is often easy to follow animals for long distances. Following an animals trail for a day or a few hours is a great way to learn about that animal. One can observe first hand exactly what the animal was doing, where it chose to go, where it slept, and what and where it ate. By following, one also strengthens the answers to the previous questions. If you wonder about why an animal is in an area, and then you follow the animal’s trail to several apple trees in the area and then observe that it digs through the snow for fallen apples, you will have discovered a darn good answer to that question. After a day of following a trail, one almost always has some interesting insight or story to tell.
Finally, a word about awareness, defined as having knowledge of, being conscious, aware of ones own existence, sensations, thoughts and surroundings, mindfully attentive or careful. Tracking works best when one is in such a state. A certain open mindedness and receptivity to the information coming to you through your senses is very important. Tracks and sign can be very subtle. Being fully present and in your body, mind and feelings is key to be able to pick these things up. Small disturbances will go unnoticed if you are thinking about the bills, or the driveway that needs shoveling. So relax. Forget about your bills. Take a deep breath, blow it out, and enjoy yourself. Remember where you are. Outdoors in one of the most invigorating places to be. As you move across the landscape, let your natural awareness float outward across the landscape. Enjoy the sun on the hills and the breeze on your face. Be here now and you will discover that there are mysteries all around you.
“Never forget the trail, look ever for the track in the snow; it is the priceless, unimpeachable record of the creature’s life and thought, in the oldest writing known on the earth”
Earnest Thompson Seton
