Tracks, Signs and Field Identification

For every animal you see in the wild, dozens pass unseen. Yet almost all of them leave signs: footprints, droppings, feeding marks, trails, scratches, nests and calls. Tracking is one of the oldest human skills, and it remains one of the most useful in wildlife biology, from finding snow leopards to monitoring rhinos and detecting poachers.

What you will learn

• How to identify and measure footprints
• How gaits and trail patterns reveal behaviour
• How to read droppings, feeding signs and other marks
• How trackers and biologists work together, and how to record signs

Footprints

Start by asking four questions:

1. How many toes? Cats and dogs show four toes on most prints; bears, otters, badgers and primates show five; deer and antelope show two hooves (cleaves); rhinos show three toes; elephants show broad round pads.
2. Are there claw marks? Dogs, bears and otters usually show claws. Cats usually do not, because their claws are retracted (the cheetah is an exception).
3. What shape is the heel pad? Cat heel pads have three lobes at the rear and are large relative to the print; dog heel pads are smaller and triangular.
4. How big is it? Measure length and width, and photograph it with a scale such as a ruler or pen.

Substrate matters: prints are clearest in fine mud, damp sand, fresh snow and dust on roads. Early morning, with low light across the ground, is the best time to see detail.

Gaits and trails

The pattern of prints reveals how an animal was moving:

• Walking: an even, alternating pattern; cats often place hind feet in front prints (“direct register”).
• Trotting: typical of dogs and foxes; a straight line of paired prints.
• Bounding and galloping: groups of four prints, typical of weasels, hares, squirrels and running antelope.
• Hopping: paired prints side by side, as in kangaroos and many birds.

A change in stride length or direction can show where an animal started to run, stopped to feed or turned to investigate something. Following a trail backwards (back-tracking) is often safer and just as informative as following it forwards.

Droppings (scat)

Droppings reveal species, diet and territory:

• Carnivores: twisted, tapered droppings containing fur, bones and feathers. Hyena droppings turn white because of the bone they digest.
• Herbivores: pellets (deer, antelope, rabbits) or large fibrous balls (elephants, horses, zebras, rhinos).
• Middens and latrines: rhinos, otters, badgers and many antelope deposit droppings at communal sites to communicate.

Never handle droppings with bare hands, as they can carry parasites. Biologists collect fresh scat in bags or tubes for DNA and diet analysis.

Feeding signs and other marks

• Browsing: deer and antelope tear vegetation, leaving ragged edges, because they lack upper front teeth; rodents and hares leave clean, angled cuts.
• Bark stripping and tree damage: elephants, deer and bears.
• Nut and cone remains: squirrels, mice and birds each open nuts and cones in characteristic ways.
• Kills and carcasses: big cats often drag kills into cover or trees; leopards feed from the rear of prey; hyenas crush bones.
• Scratch marks and scrapes: big cats scratch trees and scrape the ground to mark territory; bears rub against “marking trees”.
• Nests and dens: great apes build nests nightly; burrows vary in shape and size by species.
• Hair, feathers and wallows.

Sounds

Many animals are far easier to hear than to see. Learn alarm calls: langurs, chital and peacocks give alarm calls when tigers or leopards move through Indian forests, and trackers and guides use these to locate cats. Recordings and apps such as Merlin and BirdNET help with bird identification (Module 8).

Recording signs

A good field record includes date, time, GPS location, substrate, measurements, photographs with scale, the direction of travel, estimated age of the sign and the observer’s confidence. Photos should include one taken straight down with a scale and one showing context.

Working with traditional trackers

Some of the world’s best trackers come from communities with long tracking traditions, such as the San of the Kalahari, the Hadza of Tanzania, the Soliga and other forest peoples of India, and Aboriginal Australian trackers. Their expertise is increasingly recognised in science. The CyberTracker program, developed in South Africa by Louis Liebenberg and colleagues in the 1990s, allowed non-literate expert trackers to record detailed observations on handheld devices, and it is now used in conservation projects worldwide. Tracker certification schemes in southern Africa evaluate and accredit tracking skill.

Case study: counting rhinos from footprints

Rhinos are shy, and in thick bush individuals are hard to identify from sightings. In Namibia and Zimbabwe, researchers have developed footprint identification techniques that use measurements of rhino footprints photographed in a standard way to identify individuals. Combined with skilled trackers, these methods help monitor rhinos without disturbing them, and similar footprint identification has been applied to tigers, cheetahs, pumas and other species.

Try it yourself

After rain, walk a muddy path or beach at dawn. Find five different sets of tracks. For each, record toe number, claw marks, size and gait, photograph it with a scale, and try to identify the animal. Check your answers with a field guide.

Key terms

• Pugmark: a footprint, especially of a big cat.
• Direct register: when the hind foot lands in the print of the front foot.
• Scat: animal droppings.
• Midden: a communal dung pile used for communication.
• Back-tracking: following a trail in the opposite direction to the animal’s travel.

Quick quiz

Further reading

• Liebenberg, L. The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science.
• Stuart, C. and Stuart, M. A Field Guide to the Tracks and Signs of Southern, Central and East African Wildlife.