Suggestion on guide to animal tracks?

BigHenTinyBrain · #1 02/11/14, 08:27 AM

Right now the snow is perfect for all sorts of little paw prints and such to appear. Anybody have a suggestion for book or guide that the kids and I can use to identify stuff?

I was amazon-ing around and realized that I trust you guys' opinions more than their reviews.

homstdr74 · #2 02/11/14, 08:38 AM

How's this for free?:

http://indeeag.weebly.com/uploads/8/...mal_tracks.pdf

farmerDale · #3 02/11/14, 08:43 AM

Experience. That is the most helpful. Follow the tracks. At the end of EVERY track, is the creature that made it. I would suggest any book on tracks. I sometimes just google a suspected track online. Learning about tracks is very fun, and can be very, very valuable, depending on how you put the knowledge into practice. Once you know the tracks, the next step becomes reading what the tracks are telling you. What the critter was doing, if it is going to bed down, or if it is settled and calm, vs. all riled up and unapproachable.

TxMex · #4 02/11/14, 09:01 AM

I would recommend my Grandpa if he was still here. Older folks are great sources of knowledge

Glacialtill · #5 02/11/14, 09:05 AM

Tracking and the Art of Seeing is an excellent book. I highly recommend it:

http://www.amazon.com/Tracking-Art-S.../dp/0062735241

I looked around and there's some cheap used ones on ebay.

I've also found some cool old field guides in used book stores. The books might be old, but the tracks haven't changed.

Wolf mom · #6 02/11/14, 12:45 PM

Look up Falcon Guides by Falcon Publishing

I have one called Scats and Tracks of the Desert Southwest. I know it's not for your area, but they publish lots of different guides for different areas.

Believe it or not, but it's just as common to see scat here as tracks.

TheMrs · #7 02/11/14, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homstdr74

How's this for free?:

http://indeeag.weebly.com/uploads/8/...mal_tracks.pdf

Thank you! I printed it up for our children. Our children are 8, 7, 5, 2, and 7 months. We also homeschool so that booklet will get a lot of use around our property. They were already using it today and it has a permanent place on our shelf of science books.