animal tracking

For discussion of knowledge of the wood; this means camping, tracking, and other outdoor pursuits.

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Arathen123
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animal tracking

Post by Arathen123 »

well i have been reading up on a few websites and looking on you tube at animal tracking and i though i would put it to you guys about techniques and stuff any animal trackers / hunters out there??
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Eledhwen
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Eledhwen »

The easiest, and cheapest, way to get started in tracking can be summed up in one word; observation.

Really, that's all there is to it...although to use it properly you need to compile a mental database in the process.

It takes longer than taking a course, but it is free. Go outside, observe, don't look, at animals around you. Even people. When you see one or another pass by, go observe where they walked. Note everything about the site; ground cover, composition, impressions, displaced objects. Return to it off and on through the day over the next few; note it at different times of day, note any changes in the site itself; has grass or ground cover sprung back? Has the coloration changed? What has the weather done to it, if anything?

Yes, it is a slow method. It is, however, free. This is how I learned when I was young...later instruction in the techniques kind of refined a few things, but they taught me nothing I had not already learned via this method.

Or you can take a course.

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Greg
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Greg »

Agreed with everything Eledhwen said.

Tracks change, like she mentioned. I'm actually compiling a set of photos of sign that were taken at strict intervals from the time the tracks were made to the time they essentially disappear so the slow changes can be clearly shown, for the sake of learning/teaching. However, such a resource only gives guidelines to look for, and doesn't even come close to showing everything there is to know about reading sign...it merely scratches the surface on how to tell how old signs are.

Really, getting out into the woods (or the city! for that matter) and seeing what is left behind is the best way to learn. A great method I use regularly is, assuming you have a pet, you can have them "create" sign for you to study, and can watch it happen, so you know what you're looking at.
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Manveruon
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Manveruon »

So it may be bordering on heresy just to suggest it... but I wonder if some crazy person out there has created an app for this, haha.
Seriously though, if there's a free (or even just fairly inexpensive) downloadable app for animal tracking, it might be a really good modern resource to help folks pick up the necessary skills and compile the basic knowledge to start doing it on their own.
I mean hell, they've got a "mixology" app for making drinks, they've got an app that can automatically tell what song you're listening to - I figure someone SOMEWHERE must have thought of this.

...And if not, someone here definitely should!
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Eledhwen
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Eledhwen »

You can find any number of books and online resources for animal track prints...however, they rarely ever look like the perfect renditions in the wild. The pictures have their uses, but there is only one real way to learn to read sign and track; go out and observe. In the process you will learn something of the habits of the creatures you wish to track...said habits vary from region to region even in the same species.

There is no shortcut to tracking. None. Even a course won't make you a tracker...only actual experience will do that. Books and classes can teach the theory and do it well, but that won't do it either.

If you want to read sign and really track, and if you are going to hunt you had better be able to follow a blood trail at the least (not as easy as most think), then get out into the forests and observe.

It is the only real way.

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Manveruon
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Manveruon »

Well I'm not suggesting it's the be-all, end-all of tracking - just that it might be a good tool. Especially if there were a way for people to upload pictures of their own in different situations, to give others an idea of what a track might look like under less-than-ideal conditions. Of course, there is never a true substitute for going out and actually doing something, but it might be a nice way to get started without having to hunt through your local library or bookstore. Plus, a smart phone is more mobile than a book, so it would be something one could bring along on a trek fairly easily as a field reference guide.
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Eledhwen
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Eledhwen »

If you don't mind modern tech when you trek, sure. However, you might find that taking pics and showing them to others will not be of much use. I cannot really explain it any better than to say each person sees these things differently and without surrounding contexts that pictures don't give, minimal information is conveyed. Which is why pictures from books are of limited use as well. I never used pictures of any kind...my grandfather had me out there observing and taking plaster casts now and then. I never really saw any of the pictures until I was well versed in tracking already anyway. Perhaps that gives me some bias.

Also, tracks are only a part of tracking and reading sign. Fur, feathers, scales, skin, and impressions thereof are part of it. So is scat. Context matters. A lot.

Best of luck with it.

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Arathen123
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Arathen123 »

thanks everyone this has helped Alot luckily i am only 15 so i have time. to learn.

and yes there is a couple of apps.
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Kortoso
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Kortoso »

Eledhwen is right, there is no substitute for "dirt time", but if you can find a good teacher, by all means, make use of the opportunity.

When you spot an animal (say a deer), wait until it leaves and try to find its tracks, and compare them to the behavior of the animal as you observed it. You may see the tracks distorted in a puzzling manner until you realize the animal was turning and beginning to run, for instance.

Also, yes, individual tracks rarely look like those in the book, but when you take a group of tracks together, they display characteristics that can be only one animal.

Some teachers recommend building a box, filling it with sand or dirt, creating tracks in it at timed intervals, and observing how the tracks age in that substrate depending on weather conditions.
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Eothain »

I started learning the basics of tracking and recognizing differences in predator kills through an agricultural leadership convention when I was in high school. I continued from there with more research and working on the skill through hunting or walks in the woods. It really is quite fun and rewarding, if you really get into it.

Good luck with your future tracking!
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Kortoso
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Kortoso »

Tracking story: I once went out to my home range with a good barbarian brother of mine.

We found deer prints in the dust of the trail: a larger animal and a smaller one, probably a doe and fawn. One of the fawn's prints was distorted, as if one of her toes was deformed and twisted. We followed these tracks for about a furlong.

Then came the tracks of coyotes. I forget how many we counted, but we could also see the doe's tracks become more widely spaced, as if she were taking off at a run. But from then on, we saw no more of the fawn's prints.
Last edited by Kortoso on Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Kortoso
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Re: animal tracking

Post by Kortoso »

Very good guide for learning here:
http://www.cybertracker.org/tracking/th ... f-tracking
I really like these illustrations:
Image
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