by Morgan Carlson

Created on: April 21, 2009   Last Updated: July 15, 2011

Tracking as a whole is all about forming an identity to the inhabitants of a forest largely left unseen and invisible to daily activity in human presence. As many species are nocturnal, a great deal of activity occurs at night and without our knowing. But with the art of identifying animal tracks and what they mean, one can enter that unknown world and determine what lives there, and how the many lives interact as an ecosystem.

Generally serving as an introduction to tracking, sign tracking is all about locating where the animals have been before investigating their tracks. Indicators of an animal can be anything from bedding, trails, scat, rubbings, or any behavior that is separate from the actual physical foot track. The importance of sign tracking is at a level of the actual art, because a firm knowledge of an animal's location and habitat are vital to finding the tracks themselves and knowing where to look. Having an advanced knowledge is vital, as it will allow one to find specific tracks much faster.

Rather than in a deep forest, where most would begin to look first, it is important to know that animals prefer a mixture of cover and open ground for travel and nutritional balance. These areas, known are transitions, are a mixture of two types of habitat. Transitions generally can be found at field edges, away from streams, or something similar. Generally, areas that can support a wide range of animals from small rodents to deer will be the best areas to focus on.

Other traces to look for will be from very noticeable to very slight, the development of a good eye is essential for tracking. Large indicators can be in the form of beddings and paths where the broken and flattened vegetation is easily distinguished from standing plants. Subtle indicators can be in the form of rubbings, ground scuffs, feathers or hair, and scat. By finding any of these it will be a given pointer to the tracks themselves.

After developing a good eye for signs, tracks themselves are where the true nature of tracking can begin. Now that the general behavior and interaction of animals have been identified through sign tracking, the specifics of the animal's behavior, pace, gender, and more can be determined from how it steps. With the majority of tracks, it is good to know that not all will be a cookie-cutter version, and distortion from ground softness, pressure, and travel speed will all be contributing factors to its shape.

From that point, there is more than a rough overview can cover. The nature of tracks can be further broken down into analysis based on measure, size, pattern, placement, and print. All of this is essential to determining everything needed to know about an animal and how they move.

With a good understanding of where an animal moves, how it moves, and what it is, it is possible to study it better. In the case of hunters tracking game, knowing the movement is essential to ensuring a faster hunt or trapping of the target and not another animal that may follow a universal trail. As with all trackers trained in the knowledge of tracking, respect for the environments and the animals comes first and is prioritize over idle human curiosity. Once respect has been delivered, then one can have fun with the knowledge or decide how to use it best to their advantage.

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