Methods of tracking a wild animal

If you want to learn how to track wild animals, you should know it’s like learning another language. You should start by learning the patterns and what specific features to look for. Your tracking job will be made much easier if the animal has left footprints in mud. If you wake up early, you can find these tracks easily before pets or people walk over them.

Where to look for animal prints

Areas that have loam soil will also get good impressions. You should start your search on the walls, hedges and gateposts. You may investigate regular tracks, path cuts or runs that the animals leave behind. The first sign of an animal are holes in thicker vegetation, clumps of fur that got trapped within fencing wire, or flattened areas on the grass. The best time to look for these prints is at sunrise since the sun is capable of showing prints better. You may record the findings and then you can try to identify them after returning home. Being familiar with the patterns is a key to learning this skill. Photos may be used if you want to identify which animals have left certain footprints.

Learn the differences between footprints of similar animals

Sometimes when you look at fox prints, you can think that they are dog prints instead, but they are longer and slender. You can also find a separation in the outer pair and front pads. In the winter, these pads may have fur because the coat will be thickening in order to prepare a fox to pass through the cold months.

The benefits of being able to track animals

When you become aware of what you have to search for, then you are able to follow wild animals up to the places where they hide because you can recreate all the movements of an animal in order to understand the mindset of these animals. This is the skill that our ancestors have used in order to read a ground. When you have learned how to read the imprints, you will then be capable of differentiating between the different tracks and identifying the animals which left them behind.

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