features such as vegetation, open space, cover, and topography. Then include bird activity, animal trails and sign, and food sources. This practice reveals consistent trends and patterns on the landscape.
Drawing an animal's feet is also incredibly educational. Here Mike has meticulously drawn the feet of a horned lizard.
Field Guides and Nature Documentaries
A collection of field guides is an indispensible tool for finding the answers to many questions that arise from tracking. A diverse library gives you access to information not readily available in the field and builds your ecological understanding. When available, use numerous resources to identify and research a track, feather, or chewed acorn. Cross-referencing builds a more dynamic picture of the specimen you are studying, lending a more objective view. Sources beyond field guides can add valuable information to a reference library. Scientific journals, natural history magazines, news articles, local papers, and the Internet can all broaden your knowledge of tracking and ecology.
While field guides aid in identification of specific species, they also help to develop search imagery for species you have yet to encounter in the field. By casually flipping through the pages of field guides you develop a familiarity with species yet to be encountered.
Nature documentaries expose you to animal movements and behaviors. To assist in your concentration on animal movement, mute the sound track and if available, use slow motion. These movies allow you to watch animals move over a long period of time, thus enabling you to better interpret track scenarios.
In addition, watching animals in videos will help you see how track patterns are made. Watch how an animal's feet fall as it walks, trots, or gallops. Pay attention to the transitions between gaits. You also learn to interpret sitting, foraging, and other behavioral patterns.
Tracking Exercises
Below are a variety of tracking exercises that will help push your tracking skills beyond what can be learned through books and journals.
Mike Kresky's journals are filled with varied and wonderful discoveries, and it is his insatiable curiosity that has made him an excellent tracker.
MAKING SPECIES LISTS A species list compiles all the animals that occur in a given area. For example, if you wonder what mammal tracks you may encounter near Baker, California, obtain a field guide that covers this region, such as Mammals of California by Jameson and Peeters (2004). Flip through every page, and determine via the range map if that species lives in or near Baker. If so, write that species on your species list. Now, when you find a track in Baker, you can be relatively certain the animal is on your list. Organize the list by keeping the animals in their taxonomic families. Other useful species lists to make are trees, birds, plants, amphibians, and reptiles. This exercise prepares you for what you may encounter in the field.
THE SEVEN PERSPECTIVES OF A TRACK This exercise is based on seven separate drawings of a single track and sharpens your observation skills by teaching you to see from different perspectives. Find a clear print: (1) Draw only the outline of the track. (2) Draw the geometric shapes—such as triangles or rectangles—that compose the overall track. (3) Sketch the variation in texture within the track. (4) Next, study the different colors in the track. Even if you do not have colored pens or pencils in the field, take the time to notice the colors in and around the track and note them as best you can. (5) Draw all the edges of the track. Edges include all the areas in and around the track where soft or hard transitions exist. (6) Draw the variation in value within the track, which is the difference in lightness and darkness of the track. (7) Combine all the previous drawings into one.
DRAWING A SCENARIO Find a patch of ground where there are tracks of multiple species. Sketch all the tracks, and notice how they intermingle and overlap. Begin to ask yourself which tracks are older than others. By sequencing the events you begin to see the story unfold. Keep in mind how weather, sunlight, and shade affect tracks. Seton (1958) provides excellent examples of drawing track scenarios.
STAKING OUT A TRACK LINE Begin by finding a series of 20 or more tracks made by the same individual. Then, using wooden skewers or any consistent flagging device you have brought into the field, place one skewer per track. Once stakes have been placed, step back from the trail and observe the revealed pattern. In staking out a track line, you suddenly begin to see how the animal moved across a landscape. You see the gait and how the landscape affected the animal's movement. This exercise is excellent for visualizing how animals move.
Who came first, the Brown Pelican or the human? Journal by Mike Kresky.
LEARNING TO MOVE LIKE AN ANIMAL The more time you spend interpreting the tracks of animals, the more you will recognize the importance of gaits. The following activity is done in conjunction with a field guide or nature documentary that shows the gaits of different animals. Begin by choosing one animal to mimic. Study how that animal walks and where each of its feet land in that gait. Practice walking like that animal so that your own hands and feet fall in the same positions of the animal in the field guide. From there you can work on other gaits of that animal. When you are comfortable with one species, move on to others.
The tank tread made by a traveling Desert Tortoise in the dunes of the Mojave National Preserve in southern California.
BUILD A TRACKING BOX A tracking box can be any size, from a small transportable shoebox to an area large enough for a human to run through. Once the box is ready, fill it with “good” substrate. The easiest medium is play sand purchased at a local hardware store, but you can experiment with local soils as well. Once you have chosen your substrate, tamp or trowel the surface until it is smooth and firm.
Tracking boxes afford many activities for the beginner as well as the more seasoned observer. For instance, place your tracking box near bird feeders or where you know animals frequent. By providing a controlled substrate you can track in any season regardless of circumstances, even if you live in a place where seasonal weather or field conditions make tracking difficult. Once an animal has walked through your box, analyze the tracks as you would in the field. Photography, journaling, and track casts can all be used in conjunction with a tracking box.
The tracking box is also an excellent tool for recording the tracks of specific species. For example, capturing small mammals or live insects and running them across the substrate allows for focused analysis of elusive tracks. To further hone your skills, step beyond the sandbox and into the wild. Smooth out substrates along your daily routes, and monitor the movements of animals in your area.
A composite journal page created by Mike Kresky. Track journals are both educational and beautiful.
Tracke r's Tools: Noninvasive Monitoring
Jonah Evans, Mark Elbroch, Michael Kresky
One of the most attractive aspects of wildlife tracking is that it is noninvasive and provides a rich, detailed record of wildlife presence, habits, and behaviors without the necessity of seeing or handling them. Wildlife tracking provides us cost-effective research methods, and indirect signs allow both hunters and biologists to invest their time in the appropriate place at the appropriate time if they want to catch their quarry.
Below is a brief introduction to several complementary research methods that you might be interested in experimenting with. We highly recommend that you also read Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores by Long et al. (2008), which provides both a more detailed description of all of the following methods and an introduction to the science behind their use in wildlife research