showing the features of the toes and heel pad or claw marks. With a measuring device, note the track's length and width. The most important thing to remember is to be consistent in your practice. For example, when measuring a track, always include the claws in your measurements. In addition, record whether the track is from a front or hind foot, which side of body, and the direction in which the animal was traveling.
Many folks new to sketching in general are unsure how to use shading to convey light or depth. The choice is ultimately up to you. First, try using shading to relay light—how the sun is falling over and/or across the footprint. Second, use shading to relay depth, meaning that you would shade the deepest parts of the footprint the darkest and the shallowest portions the lightest. We would, however, recommend the second method, because shadows created by light sources can distort one's perception of tracks, as we discuss under notes on photography.
An excerpt from Mike Kresky's journals.
Once you have finished drawing the track, step away from it. This gives you a broader perspective, allowing you to see the line of tracks and perhaps discern the gait the animal was using. This perspective offers more information about the interpretation of this animal's behavior. You may notice that the animal was walking, dust bathing, or foraging. After you have drawn an individual track, draw the line of tracks. Measure the distance between the footfalls, again making sure that you are consistent. Although track journaling is a highly focused activity, remind yourself to pay attention to bird song and other animal behaviors. You may be surprised to find that you are near to the animal you are journaling.
Here Mike Kresky has drawn an area map to accompany his journals of individual tracks and trails.
Maps in Your Track Journaling
It is essential to be familiar with the topography where you track. Topographical maps teach us the salient features of the landscape. Specific maps, such as geological, hydrological, or vegetative, provide different perspectives on the natural history of an area. An awareness of topographical information and patterns in your immediate landscape is invaluable for locating ecotones, corridors, and the animals themselves.
In addition to referencing published maps, create your own maps to hone your tracking skills. Start with a map with a one- or two-mile diameter. Then create a map that covers only several hundred feet. Center this map around your set of tracks. Once the tracks have been drawn, fill in the rest of the map with pertinent features such as vegetation, open space, cover, and topography. Then include bird activity, animal trails and sign, and food sources. This practice reveals consistent trends and patterns on the landscape.
Drawing an animal's feet is also incredibly educational. Here Mike has meticulously drawn the feet of a horned lizard.
Field Guides and Nature Documentaries
A collection of field guides is an indispensible tool for finding the answers to many questions that arise from tracking. A diverse library gives you access to information not readily available in the field and builds your ecological understanding. When available, use numerous resources to identify and research a track, feather, or chewed acorn. Cross-referencing builds a more dynamic picture of the specimen you are studying, lending a more objective view. Sources beyond field guides can add valuable information to a reference library. Scientific journals, natural history magazines, news articles, local papers, and the Internet can all broaden your knowledge of tracking and ecology.
While field guides aid in identification of specific species, they also help to develop search imagery for species you have yet to encounter in the field. By casually flipping through the pages of field guides you develop a familiarity with species yet to be encountered.
Nature documentaries expose you to animal movements and behaviors. To assist in your concentration on animal movement, mute the sound track and if available, use slow motion. These movies allow you to watch animals move over a long period of time, thus enabling you to better interpret track scenarios.
In addition, watching animals in videos will help you see how track patterns are made. Watch how an animal's feet fall as it walks, trots, or gallops. Pay attention to the transitions between gaits. You also learn to interpret sitting, foraging, and other behavioral patterns.
Tracking Exercises
Below are a variety of tracking exercises that will help push your tracking skills beyond what can be learned through books and journals.
Mike Kresky's journals are filled with varied and wonderful discoveries, and it is his insatiable curiosity that has made him an excellent tracker.
MAKING SPECIES LISTS A species list compiles all the animals that occur in a given area. For example, if you wonder what mammal tracks you may encounter near Baker, California, obtain a field guide that covers this region, such as Mammals of California by Jameson and Peeters (2004). Flip through every page, and determine via the range map if that species lives in or near Baker. If so, write that species on your species list. Now, when you find a track in Baker, you can be relatively certain the animal is on your list. Organize the list by keeping the animals in their taxonomic families. Other useful species lists to make are trees, birds, plants, amphibians, and reptiles. This exercise prepares you for what you may encounter in the field.
THE SEVEN PERSPECTIVES OF A TRACK This exercise is based on seven separate drawings of a single track and sharpens your observation skills by teaching you to see from different perspectives. Find a clear print: (1) Draw only the outline of the track. (2) Draw the geometric shapes—such as triangles or rectangles—that compose the overall track. (3) Sketch the variation in texture within the track. (4) Next, study the different colors in the track. Even if you do not have colored pens or pencils in the field, take the time to notice the colors in and around the track and note them as best you can. (5) Draw all the edges of the track. Edges include all the areas in and around the track where soft or hard transitions exist. (6) Draw the variation in value within the track, which is the difference in lightness and darkness of the track. (7) Combine all the previous drawings into one.
DRAWING A SCENARIO Find a patch of ground where there are tracks of multiple species. Sketch all the tracks, and notice how they intermingle and overlap. Begin to ask yourself which tracks are older than others. By sequencing the events you begin to see the story unfold. Keep in mind how weather, sunlight, and shade affect tracks. Seton (1958) provides excellent examples of drawing track scenarios.
STAKING OUT A TRACK LINE Begin by finding a series of 20 or more tracks made by the same individual. Then, using wooden skewers or any consistent flagging device you have brought into the field, place one skewer per track. Once stakes have been placed, step back from the trail and observe the revealed pattern. In staking out a track line, you suddenly begin to see how the animal moved across a landscape. You see the gait and how the landscape affected the animal's movement. This exercise is excellent for visualizing how animals move.
Who came first, the Brown Pelican or the human? Journal by Mike Kresky.
LEARNING TO MOVE LIKE AN ANIMAL The more time you spend interpreting the tracks of animals, the more you will recognize the importance of gaits.
