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Making Tracks: Who Goes There?

Winter 2005-2006 Newsletter

“Trail experience, combined with information, evokes wisdom. Spreading outward from the track, this wisdom encompasses all of the natural world. In time, the tracker learns to move into an inner silence within that wisdom where the spirit of the animal can be touched.”
— Tom Hanratty, The Art and Science of Tracking Man and Beast

This was the first real storm of the season; no light dusting here. The barometric pressure had been dropping all the previous day. Tucked away underground the chipmunk, asleep with tail wrapped around its body, was unconcerned and unaware of the elements above. Most ground squirrel species hibernate for the winter, only partially stirring from their slumber on the warmest days.

The woodchuck, or groundhog, was also cozily slumbering in its den. But above ground, the animals could sense the change in weather and had been feeding hard. Morning light was welcome, revealing several inches of winter magic, and stories were about to be discovered. All across the landscape were intricate designs any artist would be proud to create.

The long narrow tunnels made by meadow voles, approximately 1 ¼” wide and more prominent in the snow than in grass, are their relatively safe super highways to new grassy feeding areas. But with luck, the movement of the little beast can be seen, and the sharp eyes of a hawk are always looking for an easy meal!

Over here are familiar tracks — two long oval ones (2 ¾”) in front of two small ones (7/8”), but the front tracks are the hind feet. Rabbits have a “galloping gait” which puts hind feet ahead of front feet. Our cottontails bound to three feet, but snowshoe hares in the more northern climes have larger feet and their running gait can reach seven feet.

Coyote or fox? Both have the same dog-type print: four toes, claws showing and a heel pad. The front paws are larger than the rear, and both animals can leave a wandering, zig-zag trail as they check out a tiny noise here under the snow, a smell there, but the smaller fox has dainty feet.

The red fox track shows a transverse, arched, raised bar protruding from the hair of the heel pad. All cat tracks are similar to canine tracks; however, claw marks are not visible.

Many of us have put our index and middle fingers in the V-shaped print of the deer. Galloping white-tailed deer use a “rocking horse gait” in which the hind feet swing far ahead of the front foot tracks (mule deer run much differently with a bouncing ball action, all four feet coming down together).

Why are hoofed animals swift? Not only because of their long legs, but because they run on their toes. White-tailed deer have a running stride of six to nine feet. Then there are droppings / scat! What have they been eating? What color are they? Do you see berries, fur, seeds, little bones? Animals need the minerals in bone, and elongated white scat may be coyote that has consumed some bone. Numerous little round pellets could be rabbit while slightly oval ones could be deer deposit. Is there a trailing tail mark? It could be made by a muskrat or a mouse.

Bird tracks are fun and they leave you guessing. Do the tracks indicate hopping or walking? Perching birds mostly hop when on the ground, leaving paired prints. The great horned owl is an exception and walks.

Game birds such as pheasant, turkey and others that spend much time on the ground like the robin and crow walk, and their tracks are alternate. Are the feet webbed? If you’re sure the animal is not a beaver, it could be a waterfowl. Sometimes wing or tail marks will show in the snow.

How do you tell the difference between a turkey track in the mud along a pond edge and a sandhill crane’s when you know both are in the area? Each is large, 4” long and three-toed; however, crane prints will be smooth-toed while turkey toes are coarse and “creased”. Great horned owl prints (2 ½” long) and barred owl (2 ¼”) in the snow are quite different from other bird tracks their size; three toes show prominently but one is quite a bit shorter and points inward, almost like a thumb.

On the wintry day of January 30, 1841, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal: “I know which way a mind wended this morning, what horizon it faced, by the setting of those tracks; whether it moved slowly or rapidly, by the greater or less intervals and distinctness, for the swiftest step leaves yet a lasting trace.”

But now the sun was warming the crystal bright day and tracks were changing, widening, losing their crispness. The feathery image the wind created as the bent over weed stalk moved back and forth was now no more than a slight dent in the snow. Time to head back to the house for a second cup of coffee. It had been a very pleasant morning walk.

—Grace Storch

Sources:

A Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks (Murie)
A Peterson Field Guide to Mammals (Burt & Grossenheider)
Thanks to Bob Todd for other tracking material.