#Bear paw print in snow series#

Tracks can be made out of paw prints, scat, and even fur. But smaller 2- or 3-year-old bucks, which might not be much bigger than an old doe, could be much tougher to properly sex.Mountain lions signs include tracks and sounds. If you’re following a mature buck, the size of his tracks should be a dead giveaway, especially if it’s during the rut and the deer is traveling alone. Some argue that you can sex an animal based on the shape or position of the tracks, the presence of dew claw marks and other factors, but I’m not always so sure. The most reliable and credible clue, therefore, is the size of the track. What gender is the animal you’re tracking? Whether we’re talking about deer, elk or moose, in every case the males have bigger bodies than the females. The other person is ahead of you, and you have no claim to the track. When that happens, of course, you’re dead in the water. More than once I’ve picked up a track on public land, only to find where another hunter came across it and began to follow the same track I was on. If you’re in the woods with other hunters, step up your pace a bit. How fast should you track? Slowly is the word, but there’s an exception. A migrating animal also follows a straight course. An animal that is intent on reaching a destination such as a feeding or bedding area is more apt to travel in a straight line. A feeding animal meanders here and there, walking up to brush and leaving signs of fresh browsing on shrubs and grasses. Look as far up the route as you can try to determine where the quarry was going, and what it was doing as it walked. Instead of focusing on the track, stand back and size up the scenario. Interpret the SignsĪ big part of tracking is taking in the whole picture. The brush between us prevented a shot, and since I had a Wyoming tag, the moose was home free. The more I walked, the fresher his track became, until I jumped him-within 15 yards of the Utah border, which he promptly crossed.

While the moose was spending hours in an area feeding, I spent only minutes. After three more hours of steady walking, I found another bed. After two hours, I found where he’d bedded. I figured out there were no other moose the bull was simply feeding and sometimes circling over his own tracks. The eastern cottontail can be found throughout the eastern half of the United States, and from Texas to North Dakota. Cottontail tracks generally have one-inch-long front feet and three-inch-long rear feet. Expect to find similar tracks and trails from snowshoe hares, jackrabbits, and other members of the rabbit family, Leporidae.

#Bear paw print in snow series#

The big rear feet hit the ground in front of the two small front feet when the rabbit is “walking” or running, and a trail looks like a series of “C”s or “V”s made by the four feet. Find a few sets of tracks, however, and you’ll know it’s a rabbit right away. Hardly the burrow dwelling Peter Cottontail of our childhood literature, the eastern cottontail lives its life in the open, seeking shelter in the brush and weeds, rather than a deep den in the ground.Ī single footprint from one paw may not tell you much about this animal or identify the species. The eastern cottontail lives its life in the open, seeking shelter in the brush and weeds.