Winter Animal Tracking

 

Left: Wolf track with a book ruler for scale  Right: My dog Beaux

My dog is my chief scout when we go out hiking. He never fails to find animal tracks- mostly squirrels or deer but the more we venture from our little neighborhood we find more diversity. Animal tracking can be a fun and rewarding skill to learn. Starting with the basics of learning track identification to becoming proficient with the types of walking and running patterns that are characteristic to different family groups of animals. Tracking can be used to determine where to put trail cameras, where to hunt or trap and just to keep a n inventory of what is wandering around in your backyard. 

Measuring a track

Example of a 2x trot

Tracks on a winter landscape

Winter is one of the best times to practice tracking here in the UP. All the snow we get can form a perfect substrate for the critters impressions. After rain is a good time, too if you are looking in areas with mud or sand but tracks are made anytime animals move- it may just be hard to tell sometimes. 

Snowy path

There are three very important tracking basics:

1. How many toes (#)?

2. Are claws (C) present?

        *cr-rare, co-claws on occasion, no C at all- no claws show up, cv- claws vary are all             options as well

3. Is the hind foot (H/h) or front foot (F/f) larger? 

example: canid tracks have a formula of F4h4C

That translates to front foot has 4 toes and larger than the hind foot, hind foot has 4 toes and claws are always present. 

cats have a formula of F4h4

rabbits f4H4cr 

bears f5H5co

deer F2 (4) h2 (4) because sometimes their dew "claws" show up

All animals you can find in the woods of North America have a code like this established by James Halfpenny. 

Another fun aspect of tracking is learning the gaits. Gaits are just the way in which animals move that leaves impressions in the ground. Walking for example is a common gait. A walk, 2x2 lope, and rotary lope are very common canid gaits. The hop gait is...you guessed it, from the rabbits. So, with some animals it is a tell tail sign while others exhibit multiple and change it up. Things like chase, play, injury etc. can effect the way these movements can look. 

Lastly, when tracking, taking measurements is defining factor. Wolves, coyotes and foxes all have more or less the same track that can be distinguished by size. 

Wolf= 3.5+ inches long (or tall) X 3+ inches wide 

Coyote= 2.5-3 inches long X 2 inches wide

Red fox= 2.5 inches long X 2 inches wide 

*red fox and coyote tracks are sometimes the same size

Then measuring the stride and straddle. It is important to have a uniform way you measure this each time. Straddle can be measured from the outside of the toes horizontally while stride is back of where 1 foot is to the next place that same foot lands. 

We hope that this information was helpful and you can put it to use while there is still snow on the ground! This has sure been a weird winter; Over here on the Western end of the UP it is snowing right now.