Anyone else love tracks ?

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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While I am far from the next Tom Brown or Mantracker I have always loved looking for and following animal tracks.
As a kid I always found looking at my pile of presents on christmas morning more exciting wondering what they were than actually opening them and that is how I am with animal tracks !
To see an animal in the wild is great but, for myself,finding the tracks left by my little forest friends and then trying to follow them is awesome !!!!
Tom Brown once said that the ultimate thrill for him was to follow a set of tracks untill he found the last set with the feet still in them, this is something I have only managed once and that was more by luck than skill. I found some rabbit tracks and followed their general direction, every so often I would lose the tracks but then see a run in the longer grass and pick up the direction again. Eventually I spotted the poor little rabbit trying to remain hidden in the long grass, I snapped a quick pic and left him to enjoy the rest of his day in peace !!!!!
I find summer to be the hardest time to track as the ground is usually hard and dry but Autumn and winter are just around the corner and that is when I enjoy looking for good tracks again.
Here are some clear Raccoon tracks I found last Autumn in mud....
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Every so often I come across some that make me smile, such as when an animal was suddenly spooked and lept into the air or bolt quickly into the bush, I try to visualize the scenario each time. This was one of those such tracks that made me smile.....Mr Deer and Mr Raccoon both walking side by side on their morning stroll.......:D
PICT4795.jpg

Anyone else love tracks ????
 
I love em too man. Im not very good at identifying them, but Im getting better. Kinda like Plant ID.

Its one of my favorite parts of hiking in winter, since the plants are not as abundant.
 
I love following them, but as you said its tuff in the summer. I can always tell a trail by the mess of the leaf litter as they walk through, but I can't tell if its deer, coyote, etc.

However I usually find both deer and coyote droppings on the same trail.

I look forward to the snow, when it will make it alot easier.
 
tonym said:
I love following them, but as you said its tuff in the summer. I can always tell a trail by the mess of the leaf litter as they walk through, but I can't tell if its deer, coyote, etc.

However I usually find both deer and coyote droppings on the same trail.

I look forward to the snow, when it will make it alot easier.
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Yeah that's a good point regarding the scat, you can often also use that to guage the age of the track. When I lived in the UK I used to practice following horse tracks ( if you can't follow a horse it's a poor tale ) and every so often I would come across some horse sh*t, when I eventually came across some that was still steaming I knew I was close and would increase my pace untill I could see the horse !!!! Man what hobbies we have eh !!!!:D
 
I came across some turkey tracks once that were perfect !! In an area of very fine silt with the perfect amount of moisture.The tracks were incredible ! Every detail of the foot was perfectly reproduced.I've never seen anything like it .
Has anyone seen any carbon footprints in the woods ??
 
mete said:
I came across some turkey tracks once that were perfect !! In an area of very fine silt with the perfect amount of moisture.The tracks were incredible ! Every detail of the foot was perfectly reproduced.I've never seen anything like it .
Has anyone seen any carbon footprints in the woods ??
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I have never seen any Turkey tracks but I did once post some Blue Heron tracks on here that I found on a local beach and were huge, I figured they must have become stretched in the wet sand !!!
 
Damn this thread sank faster than a lead balloon and I was hoping to see loads of pics of different tracks !!!:(
Anyway I'm off out today and tomorrow and hope to snap some new tracks for this thread.....maybe y'all could do the same !!!

Untill then let's see who's the first to ID this scat......bit too easy eh !
RIMG0087.jpg
 
Umm... Bear??? ('cept, it's not in the woods, which is where bears go, in my understaning...)
 
I love studying tracks! Having spent 19 of my 24 year career in the Border Patrol, I'm ashamed to say I can;t track a man very well!!! (Through mud, snow, etc, yes, but then, who couldn;t?)

So I'm resigned to studying 'coon, coyote, skunk, bird, and other small animal tracks :D
 
I think it's bear. Same seeds as I find in the bear scat I see.

foxyrick said:
Umm... Bear??? ('cept, it's not in the woods, which is where bears go, in my understaning...)
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:D LOL. I've found that the bear will poo on the road to camp. He wants to mark his territory and let you know he's around. In the below pic you can see our camp in the trees at the curve of the road, less than 1/10 mile from camp. It wasn't there the day before I took the pic. There's more the other direction from camp. We never saw it, nor did it bother our camp when we left.

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But to keep on topic, I love following game trails on our day hikes. I see lots of fresh tracks during our day hikes.
 
pitdog said:
Damn this thread sank faster than a lead balloon and I was hoping to see loads of pics of different tracks !!!:(
Anyway I'm off out today and tomorrow and hope to snap some new tracks for this thread.....maybe y'all could do the same !!!

Untill then let's see who's the first to ID this scat......bit too easy eh !
RIMG0087.jpg
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It looks very much like the Coyote scat I get on my driveway every so often.
 
Took a pic of track on my last hike. I put my cel phone down (it wasn't on I just happened to forget it in my pocket :p ) for scale. On certain areas of the trail the bears seem to use the hiking trail as much as the hikers do. Lots of bear and deer tracks, and others smaller not easy to identify for me.
 

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Reminds me of male turkey poop which has a 'J' shape while the female is straight !
 
tonym said:
That would be a big coyote, the pic I put up was Coyote though.
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For those that said Bear scat,give yourselves a pat on the back !!!;)

Do you know how to tell Coyote tracks from dog tracks?
The outer toe tracks on a Coyotes forefoot are larger than the centre toes on a dog they are roughly the same size or smaller !!!!
 
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