Winter can be a great time to look for animal tracks in the woods or even in your own neighborhood. If you live some place where snow is common, it can be easy and fun to spot tracks after a snowfall. Even in the summer, a careful eye can spot animal tracks in the mud, dirt or even trampled grass. But what made them? What animal crossed your yard or made its way across the trails you are hiking on? Was it a skunk or a raccoon? A hare or a cottontail? A coyote or a fox?
If you want to begin a new hobby or just educate yourself about animal tracks, you’ll want some helpful tools. A field guide (or two), a journal or notebook for keeping notes or sketches, a magnifying glass, a ruler, or simply an app on your phone, can help get you started. If you have kids or grandkids, you can make a game of it! You’ll both learn about what animals are all around us, even when we can’t see them.
Guide to Animal Tracks
This pocket-sized Animal Tracks Identification Record Book is the perfect way to identify and then record any tracks you come across outside on the trail. It features 119 pages to record data, with space for you to write the date, location, environment, time of day, front toes, rear toes, track symmetry, claws/nails, surroundings, movement pattern and notes. $8.99
Forest Animal Track Game Flash Cards
You don’t need to be a kid or a student to use flash cards! This educational game, with 32 animal cards and 32 labeled animal track cards, can teach anyone, young or old, how to match animals with their tracks and where to find them. If you learn to notice and recognize animal tracks, you will be able identify which animals visit your neighborhood or like to walk along the same trails as you do. $13.69
Animal Tracks: A Folding Pocket Guide
Covering more than 100 species, this laminated folding guide is a great introduction to tracks and signs of familiar North American species. It allows you to quickly identify the tracks and signs of common mammals and birds (and some scat). The folded format allows for easy comparison of similar tracks and a ruler is included on the back panel for measuring. $7.95
This article was originally published in Girl Camper Magazine.
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