A Comprehensive Guide to Identifying Animal Tracks

Animal tracks are one of the most significant ways to identify if you’re near a specific species when you’re out in the wilderness.

Whether you’re hunting for the next deer that you want to take home or you’re trying to get rid of an unwanted wolf or fox that’s been bothering your livestock, you need to understand the characteristics of the tracks you may see in your area.

Walking Patterns are Different Among different animals

Four types of walking patterns can be found when you’re tracking animals. These patterns are Perfect Walkers, Waddlers, Bounders, and Hoppers.

Perfect Walkers include deer, moose, fox, coyote, and bobcat that all have their rear paw land where the front paw was previously.

Waddlers appear to shimmy from side to side and prints don’t land inside each other. Animal tracks in this category are made by bears, skunks, woodchucks, raccoons, muskrats, beavers, and porcupines.

Bounders make tracks by pulling rear feet up and next to where their front feet were previously. Animals that make these types of tracks are otters, weasels, and other animals in their family.

Hoppers will appear to have tracks with the rear feet in front of the front feet and a large space between tracks. These animals include rabbits, mice, red squirrels, and chipmunks.

Types of Tracks

There are many types of animal tracks that you can see when you’re out and about. Its good to know what some of these are and how they are made. Let’s explore:

Canine

This one is pretty easy and if you have a dog in your home you can learn how their tracks are made. The most common canine tracks are made by wolves, coyotes, foxes, and dogs. The fox is typically the smallest of the group and the wolf the largest.

Feline

Another of the common animal tracks you’ll find is feline tracks, especially if there are cats in your area. These tracks have a distinctive pad that is shaped like a bubble “M”. The animals in this group include cougar/mountain lion, lynx, bobcat, and house cat. If you find tracks that you know don’t belong to a house cat, you should be on the lookout for one of the other dangerous cats.

Large Hoof Tracks

Large hooved animals have a split oof with two toes that are distinct and easy to identify. If you’re tracking deer or moose, you’ll want to know what these hooves look like. Animals in this class include moose, deer, elk, bison, and cows. Its not likely that you’re going to hunt for cows unless you happened to have lost one or two from your farm.

Small Hoof Tracks

The shape of the hooves on smaller animals gives you an idea of where they live. The animal tracks from this group typically belong to mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and wild hogs. The sheep and goats have toes and hooves that are narrow and not spread out, but wild hogs have a larger spread to carry their weight and handle the dirt they live in.

Bird Tracks

It would be hard to mistake bird tracks with the bony shape that makes it easy to distinguish them from any other animal. Birds that spend a lot of time in water have webbing between their toes, which is also easy to see because the tracks look more like paddles. Many of the birds you could see that leave tracks are crows, grouse, turkeys, and ducks.

Small Mammals

Call them rodents if you want, but some of these mammals can get pretty big. Most of these animals leave tracks that resemble canine and feline tracks but are longer and thinner in their shape but smaller in size. Some of the small mammal tracks that you might see come from raccoons, opossum, otters, skunks, rabbits, and armadillos.

Reptiles and Amphibians

These animals have a similar feature and that is the fact that they have long toes to provide extra grip for climbing and walking. You might see tracks that are left by alligators, lizards, and frogs when you’re studying tracks and looking around at what animals have been through the area.

Bear Tracks

Probably the largest and most unmistakable tracks you’ll see will be made by bears. You have to be in an area where bears roam for this to happen, but if you are, you’ll see the large paws with the rounded tows and wide heel pad. Bears that you might find if you see these tracks are grizzly bears and black bears, both of which should be avoided by people.