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101 Camping Out Ideas & Activities
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TRAILING ANIMALS
You have to know a great deal about animals, about their habits, and about their individual traits if you want to follow their tracks and come upon them unobserved. First, there are certain rules you must obey at all times:
When following the tracks of game, step lightly and learn how to walk silently on twigs and dried leaves.
Never look an animal in the eye, or it will run away.
Dress inconspicuously so that you do not stand out from the background and make your presence obvious.
Always be careful to sneak up on an animal against the wind. Even when you observe this precaution, don't come too close to an animal if you are sweating a lot. Animals have a very keen sense of smell when it comes to human perspiration. Bathe before going scouting and rub yourself with sorrel leaves to minimize the human scent.
We have talked about animal tracks, but this term is not strictly accurate.
Woodsmen distinguish among traces, tracks and footprints, and only when they have made the distinction do they start to interpret the signs. Tracks are the marks left by big game such as a moose, boar, antelope or a deer, whereas traces are the prints of a small game animal such as a fox or a bird.
You may not always be lucky enough to find traces or tracks immediately. Often you will have to be content just to recognize a set of prints, as sportsmen call the imprint of all four feet of an animal. A set of prints calls for careful interpretation. Only occasionally do you have such a clear footprint in front of you that from the single impression you can tell with certainty what animal made it. When you are interpreting tracks, first take in the whole picture, looking at them in their entirety, before con centrating on the details.
The tracks or traces animals make clearly show how they walk. Some small game animals, such as foxes and wildcats, are able, because of their size, to place one paw directly in front of the next, as if they were walking along a tightrope. Others, the big game animals, set their feet next to each other. These hoofed animals walk as if straddling a straight line, leaving what are called cross traces.
You will find such prints when the animal was moving along at an easy, comfortable pace. If the animal was running away or jumping, you'll find sets of prints at intervals. In the case of stags, the prints may be 25 feet apart. The prints of hoofed big game animals resemble the prints a rabbit makes.
From the type of traces or tracks you find, you can determine whether you are dealing with a big or small game animal, and whether the animal was springing or just walking along easily. The length of the jumps or the side-to-side distance between hoofprints will tell you something about the size of the animal. The bigger, taller and older an animal is, the greater the distance from side to side (the cross trace). In general female animals have a smaller cross trace.
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