Track Wild Animals with Your Kids!

 

By Kyt Lyn Walken

What Animal Tracking Is About

Animal tracking is the practice of spotting, interpreting, and following animal tracks, which finds two primary applications: hunting and wildlife conservation. This subject resonates deeply with me. In 2018, after completing a two-week course, I became a Certified Anti-Poaching Ranger for Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide, a NGO based in Colorado.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of locating animal tracks in our work. Animals' signs of passage represent an essential source of information about a species' habits and the potential threats they face due to the drastic reduction of their natural habitat.

Beyond anti-poaching activities, wildlife tracking offers critical benefits in outdoor scenarios, especially when camping with family. For instance, discovering wildlife tracks can help you:
- Determine the proximity of water sources
- Avoid getting too close to predators
- Understand the most suitable places to observe wildlife safely

By discovering animal funnels, feeding, and bedding areas, you gain valuable clues about the best spots to approach wildlife without disturbing their habitat or entering their "red area".

The Complexity of Animal Tracking

Becoming proficient at distinguishing between different species' tracks is not a skill mastered in a day or two. In fact, developing an extensive and accurate knowledge of local fauna can take years. Interestingly, children often prove to be exceptional trackers!

The Art of Tracking: A Timeless Skill

Despite its age, the art of tracking remains fundamentally unchanged. This skill primarily consists of observation, preserving its core procedures throughout centuries. Observation is intrinsically connected to awareness of your outdoor environment.

Animal movements, habits, reactions to threats, intentions: this huge amount of data can be pulled out from the ground as well as from the surrounding vegetation which can be damaged by their abrupt passage.

The purpose of tracking is collecting information and combining pieces of evidence through a systematic approach:
- Gathering evidence
- Making deductions
- Confirming findings

As Sir Edmund Locard stated in the 20th century, "Every contact leaves a trace."

Tracking Challenges and Techniques

Wildlife tracking can be immediate in simple terrains like mud, sand, and snow—what trackers call "track traps". However, it becomes challenging on surfaces like dead leaves, pine needle beds, rocky ground, or dry prairie.

The tracking process involves a specific sequence:
1. Carefully observing your surroundings
2. Gathering data about the weather and the species you want to study
3. Interpreting tracks with extra attention (misidentification is a common mistake)
4. Attempting to follow trails

Essential Tracking Tools

A typical tracking kit contains minimal but crucial items:
- Measuring device (tape measure)
- Flashlight (for enhancing track details in shady or night conditions)
- Tweezers (to remove debris from tracks)
- Notebook, pencil, and eraser

Tracking with Senses

Effective tracking employs almost all senses except taste. While animals' noses and ears are far more developed than ours, we can still gather significant information through:
- Sight: Observing tracks and environmental disturbances
- Smell: Detecting distinctive wildlife odours
- Touch: Feeling changes in terrain substrate

Pro tip: You're on the right trail when you catch a strong, distinctive wildlife faeces odour.

Best Tracking Practices

A valuable first step related to Wildlife Tracking is to research beforehand the local fauna and flora which you might encounter. A quick on line search can usually bring up a simple animal tracks pictorial guide. eg from Nature Study Australia

The early morning hours are ideal for tracking, especially in areas with less human contamination. Fresh tracks await your discovery, particularly around dawn when morning dew abounds and  nocturnal animals have recently been active.

River banks offer the best opportunities to locate recent animal transitions and activities. Remember that animal trails are often narrow and winding, guided by instinct and behavioural patterns.

Recording Your Discoveries

Maintaining a tracking journal is invaluable. Record your findings using footprint charts to build a comprehensive database. To help you on your learning journey there are free resources on my website:

• "Animal Track Card" available at https://thewayoftracking.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tracking-card-field-exercises-1.pdf 

• An expanded skills book for kids Tracking for Kids 

A Final Word

Animal tracking is a skill embraced by thousands of passionate enthusiasts. Success comes through sharing knowledge, practicing, patience, and maintaining a genuine willingness to learn.  And what better place to learn a new skill than the great outdoors!

About the author:  Kyt Lyn Walken :

• Official representative and instructor for Hull’s Tracking School (Virginia, U.S.A..)
• Certified conservation ranger for Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide (Colorado, U.S.A.)
• Directora de Rastreo Humano Por Dynamic Tracking (Spain)
• Official mantracking instructor for Mantracker Germany Response Team (Germany)
• Official mantracking instructor for Wild Skills School (Sweden)
• And Kyt is a 2024 ArmaSkin Ambassador