The art of animal and man tracking in the simplest of terms is acknowledging and following a disturbance of interest (What we call sign) on the landscape.
A tracker is someone who is able to glean specific information from a track, sign, or disturbance that has been registered or made by animal or man on the landscape.
For instance a raccoon registers its prints in the soft sand along the shore of a lake; what is the Raccoon up to? A freshly browsed shrub with shiny clipped stems, may tell us how recently a deer has fed.
Practical tracking has many uses, from discovering what animals visit your yard, wildlife observation, hunting, military, law enforcement, and search and rescue applications.
Developing your skills as a tracker will open a whole new world to you. A world of mystery and intrigue, the natural world of nature.
Partial Racoon Track in sand on Lakeshore
A tracker discerns important information from disturbances such as these and is able to gather new insights about the animal as he goes along with the ability to follow the sign across all types of surface types.
For instance, what kind of animal made the track? When was it made? And what direction is it going? These are just a few of the questions in the mind of a Tracker.
Tracking is not just following footprints in the sand; it includes all landscapes and substrates as well.
The trackers seeing, reaches deep into the past, present and future of a landscape, always looking for subtle and not so subtle indicators of what happened here? Why? And where is it going? For instance in animal tracking a sign disturbance can be left on the bole of a tree as claw marks. Or following a game trail you may discover up-turned twigs, a tuft of hair, or perhaps even freshly made creases in a leaf, all translates into sign. It is all important information valuable to a tracker who is following these sign indicators of an animal’s passage.
Sign is a disturbance created by the passage of ‘something’ on the landscape. Grass that has been pushed down due to the passage of an animal is considered sign, as well as disturbed foliage or torn earth. Or it could be something naturalist term as scat! For those of you who are not familiar with this term it refers to the droppings of an animal. Shat for Man, scat for animals.
Scat is an important indicator for a tracker. Scat can tell the tracker what animal species it came from and what particular type of animal left it. A lot about the animals diet, and the time of year the scat was deposited. The science of scat is referred to as Scatology. A fascinating world indeed! I’ll continue this lecture in class.
Application of Sign Tracking
Sign tracking can tell you what animals are in an area. How long ago and how many, how large, where they have been and where are they going. Tracking is a skill that can be applied in all outdoor situations. You may even find you might have to backtrack yourself if you become lost or turned around and confused by the landscape. This happens to the best folks! Tracking also greatly improves our awareness of the world around us and greatly intensifies enormously our experience in nature.
Tracking is a very important tool for SAR (Search and Rescue) and law enforcement agencies. More and more of these agencies are discovering the value of tracking. The FBI Hostage Rescue Teams, as well as other covert and not so covert military operations worldwide have skilled Trackers on board.
Claw Marks on Alder
Tracking Courses:
Our animal tracking program is designed to instruct each student in the basic mechanic’s of tracking by sign. As a general rule of tracking, the percentage of finding a partial track is much higher than a complete and perfect print. Locating easily identifiable prints you would need to look in areas that have soft substrate such as sand, mud or clay. The beach is an excellent place to find good animal prints!
These areas are great for tracking, unfortunately animals move in and out of these substrates and into ground that is much more difficult to read. Correctly identifying and aging a particular print especially a partial on grass, pine needles or leaves, a Tracker must draw on all of his skill in order to solve the puzzle.
Sign Tracking uses many and varied indicators of the landscape to assist in the educated assessment of the most promising facts that lead to the conclusion of the sacred question(s). What made this print? How long ago? What was it doing? Where did it come from and where is it going?
Depending on the courses you take with us, you will learn:
- Identifying Animal Tracks and Gaits
- Tracking Sign Indicators
- The Science and Terminology of Tracking.
- Measuring Tracks
- Ageing Tracks
- Preserving Track and Scat Specimens
- Track by Sign
- Using the Senses of Touch and Smell
- Night Tracking
- SAR Man Tracking Techniques
- Military and law Enforcement Applications
- Escape and Evasion
- Counter – Tracking Measures
Though you begin your exploration of Tracking in First Circle Camp, Second Circle Camp is where we focus on expanding our tracking and nature awareness skills.
