This past weekend I went tracking by the West Fork of the Teanaway River in the hope of finding signs of the wolves that had been spotted there earlier this year. We didn't see any but still found lots of fresh, cool signs from other critters. Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to take measurements or to put a reference object in the picture to give you a reasonable idea of the size of the tracks. Still, I hope you'll enjoy the pictures and learn more about track characteristics.
(Note: click on pictures to make them bigger).
The sand bar on the opposite side of the river from the campground was so rich in fresh activity. First and foremost, I had never seen that much bear activity in a single area before.
Bears are plantigrade (or two-legged in Native American terms) animals, just like us. That means that, unlike many other animals, they walk on the whole length of their feet. Here you can see the hind track of a black bear. It's a left foot, as you can see the smallest toe on the inside of the track. Note the five toes with claw marks on the left side of the picture.
Here is the front track of the same bear, this time in mud. It's also a left track, as you can barely see the inside toe above the cottonwood leaf. The toes are pointing up on the picture. Note the large curved pad below the toes, which is bean shaped.
It may be quite a bit harder to figure out what this is at first but it is an interesting one for several reasons. This is also a left front track from the bear, this time with the toes pointing to the left of the picture. Again, note the large curved pad behind the toes. But also note the additional circular pad on the right side of the picture. It's the heel of its hand and it often doesn't register. Also note how fresh this track is: there is a clear difference of color between the sand in the track and that of the background and you can clearly see the fluffiness of the sand, especially in the toes.
The bear left an impressively wide trail at the back of the sand bar going into the woods. There were tracks in both directions and it was clear the bear had been using this trail extensively. The trail then climbed a steep muddy hill and the bear slid over 10 inches for each step! Here, it's going down; note the toes at the end of the slide.
Another clear prowler of the sand bar was a cougar. It didn't look particularly fresh in the mud but judging from the weather patterns it was probably made two days ago, after the hard rain. Here you have a front right track. Note the asymmetry of the track, with a leading second toe on the inside; also note the asymmetry of the M-shaped pad behind the toes. The four toes are tear-drop shaped and claws, being retractable, generally do not show in the track, as is the case here. Front tracks are larger, rounder, and more asymmetrical than the hind tracks.
Another shot of cougar tracks, this time in the sand and representing left feet. Note that this is a double track, with the hind track at the top of the picture landing on the front of the front track. You can see the rear of the pad of the front track at the bottom of the picture. Note the clear three lobes at the rear of each pad.
The picture below shows an older cougar track among pine needles.
Below are the teeth marks of a beaver on an old cottonwood log.
Domestic cows abounded on the forest trails. At first I was very confused as to whether the tracks I was seeing were cattle or elk tracks, as the tracks can be fairly similar, especially in the case of young cattle. But the picture below is a clear example of a domestic cow track, as it is very rounded in appearance, with the wider section in the middle of the track.
Left is a cute picture of a double deer track inside a domestic cow track. Both sets of tracks are pointing to the left so the deer track is in the rear left corner of the cow track (the bottom right corner of the picture).
Of course, there were plenty of deer tracks around as well. Here is a pronking pattern of a deer. A pronk is when all four feet lift off at the same time, like jumping. The two tracks on the left side of the picture at the front feet; the track behind them is the left hind foot (the other foot is not in the picture but it's just to the right and above the left hind). Note that the dew claws register behind the two main toes, which is fairly common when the deer is going fast or putting a lot of energy into its feet, as in pronking here.
Here is the detail of the front left foot with the dew claws.
To the right is a common walking trail from deer. The track to the bottom right of the picture is going toward the camera and is not part of the pattern. Each "track" in this picture is actually a double register: both the front and hind feet on the same side of the animal land in exactly the same spot. So in the bottom center of the picture we see the left feet of the animal. A little further up are the right feet and still a little further we can see the left feet again.
Another common animal in the woods is of course the coyote. Though this track is slightly distorted due to the deep muddy substrate, we can see that the coyote track is a lot more symmetrical and the toes are much more evenly oval than a cat track. The track is nice and tight and we can draw an X between the rear toes and the pad without intersecting the pad, which would not be the case in most domestic dogs. Also note the very clear and sharp nails just above each of the four toes.
The picture to the right is also a coyote track in a much harder substrate. You can only see the four toes with their claw marks, going toward the top of the picture, mainly because the still-moist mud clung to the toes of the animal and lifted off from the ground. In the field, it's important to be able to detect that kind of pattern and not just rely on full prints showing clearly.
Can you make sense of what is going on here?
There are three different tracks, from two different coyotes. The bottom track is pointing toward the camera and is substantially larger than the other two.
The other tracks belong to the same animal and are pointing toward the top of the picture. The top track is the front foot and the hind foot is just to its rear left. Note that the front foot is quite a bit wider than the hind foot, which then appears longer.
Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of something I had never seen before so I was pretty excited about it. It's a snake swallowing a frog! Look at the hind feet sticking out of the snake's mouth.
Below is the snake after it had swallowed the whole frog. Note the bulge of its stomach just after the S formed by its neck.
There you go folks. I hope you enjoyed this little trip with me and that you learned some new things about recognizing animal tracks and signs.
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| A view of the Cascades from the Teanaway River |
How cool is that....? And how rich in wildlife your local habitat is! I'm guessing the "S" curve to the snake's body stands for "satisfaction"!
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