Wild animals lead a secretive lifestyle. Thanks to their well-developed senses of smell, hearing, and sight, animals and birds notice humans before humans notice them, and if they do not immediately run away or fly away, they hide and their behavior becomes atypical. Traces of their life activities help observers unravel the mysteries of animal life. This refers not only to footprints, but also to all the changes that animals make to the surrounding environment.
In order to correctly interpret the traces found, it is necessary to know who they belong to, how long ago they were left by the animal, where the animal was heading, and how it moved. How can one learn to recognize animal tracks? To determine the freshness of a trace, it is necessary to combine the biology of the animal, the weather conditions at the moment and several hours ago, and other information. For example, in the morning, a moose trace is found, not covered with snow that fell the day before from the afternoon to the evening. The freshness of the trace is beyond doubt — it is nocturnal.
The freshness of a track can also be determined by touch. In freezing temperatures and dry snow, a fresh track does not differ in looseness from the surrounding snow surface. After a while, the walls of the track harden, and the lower the temperature, the harder the track becomes. Any other tracks left by a large animal become harder over time, and the more time passes since the tracks were made, the harder they become. Tracks of small animals left on the surface of deep snow do not harden. It is important to find out whether the animal was here in the evening or passed by an hour ago. If the track is old, more than a day old, then it is useless to look for the animal that left it, as it is already far away, out of reach. If the track is fresh, then the animal may be somewhere nearby. To determine the direction of the animal’s movement, you need to know the characteristics of the limbs of different animals. Looking closely at a single track of a large animal left in loose deep snow, you can see the difference between the walls of the track along the animal’s path.
On one side, they are flatter, and on the other, they are steeper. These differences arise because animals lower their limbs (legs, paws) gently and lift them out of the snow almost vertically. These differences have been given names: the rear wall is called the “povoloka,” and the front wall of the track is called the “vyvoloka.” The trailing edge is always longer than the leading edge, which means that the animal was moving in the direction indicated by the shorter, i.e., steeper edges of the track. When an animal lifts its foot, it presses down on the front wall, compacting it, while the rear wall remains undeformed. Sometimes, in order to accurately determine the direction of an animal’s movement, it is necessary to hurry it along, observing the pattern of its tracks.
The gait of an animal, or its movement pattern, can be divided into two types: slow or moderately fast movement (walk, trot, amble) and fast running in successive jumps (gallop, canter).
Animals with elongated bodies and short limbs most often move at a moderate gallop. They push off with their hind limbs and land exactly in the footprints of their front limbs. The result of this gait is paired prints of only the hind limbs (most mustelids). Sometimes, when trotting slowly, one or both hind paws do not reach the front prints, and then groups of three and four prints appear, called three-footprints and four-footprints. Less commonly, long-bodied and short-legged animals switch to a sprint, and then they place their hind paws in front of their front paws when jumping, and therefore the prints of the hind paws are in front of the front paws (hares, squirrels).
To determine the freshness of a track, divide it with a thin twig. If the track divides easily, it is fresh; if it does not divide, it is old, more than a day old.
When walking or trotting, animals move their limbs in a cross pattern: the front right and rear left paws are brought forward, then the other pair. When walking slowly, the animal’s front limb touches the ground slightly before the rear, and when trotting, the front and rear limbs on opposite sides touch the ground at the same time. When walking slowly, the rear paw prints remain slightly behind and to the side of the front paw prints. When walking at a moderate pace, the animal places its rear paw in the front paw print. When trotting, the rear paw print may be slightly ahead of the front line. Therefore, the pattern of the prints can be used to judge whether the animal was moving slowly or quickly. Ambling is a movement in which an animal moves both right or both left limbs simultaneously (sometimes horses, bears).
Clear footprints can only be found on dense wet snow, silt, and soft clay. On loose soil or loose snow, animal tracks consist of a series of shapeless holes without claws or toes.
Animal tracks vary not only depending on the gait of the animal, but also on the condition of the ground on which the animal moves. The track also changes depending on the hardness or softness of the ground. Hoofed animals leave two hoof prints when moving calmly on hard ground. The same animals leave four hoof prints when running and jumping on soft ground. With five toes on their front paws, otters and beavers leave four-toed tracks on soft ground. Tracks also change with the age of the animals. Older animals have larger footprints of a different shape. Piglets rest on two toes, while their parents rest on four. Adult dogs rest on four toes, while their puppies rest on five. The footprints of males and females also differ, but only experienced trackers can detect the differences.