From the tiniest shrews to bears and cougars, wild animals leave behind clues to be discovered by any observant outdoor adventurist. Many North American wildlife species stay out of sight of humans but their traces often show up in surprising places if you take the time to look for them. Animal trails can be found year-round and in any landscape.
Our ability to find, interpret and follow animal signs has been a fundamental part of our relationship with the natural world since the origins of our species. Tracking skills can be found in the traditional ecological knowledge of many cultures around the world, and they’re just as important today in research, hunting, recreation and conservation.
Learning to identify the creatures that share our outdoor spaces can enrich our connection to nature.
So, can you figure out who left these tracks?
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Which animal left this print?
- Wolverine
- Bobcat
- Deer
- Raccoon
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2. A bobcat. This is the front left track of a bobcat in the snow. Typical features of a track from a member of the feline family are four toes, a large trapezoidal-shaped palm pad with three lobes at the back and an overall round shape to the track. Bobcat front tracks range in size from 1.5 to 2.25 inches long.
Which animal left this print?
1. Great blue heron
2. Eagle
3. Bullfrog
4. Deer
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3. A bullfrog. These unique tracks reveal all four feet of a frog. The top two tracks are the frog’s front feet, which have four clawed toes that face inward. The hind feet (bottom) are significantly larger than the front with five clawed toes. Most of the time, only the toes of the frog’s hind feet register in tracks. Frogs come in all sizes. The track pattern of a large bullfrog track like this one measures about 4 inches wide.
Which animal left this print?
1. Black bear
2. Wolf
3. Yeti
4. Coyote
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1. A black bear. The image shows the left front (bottom) and hind (top) tracks of a black bear in wet sand. Black bears have five clawed toes on both their front and hind feet and a large flat palm pad that often registers more clearly than other parts of the track. Their prints can sometimes look like human tracks and can be roughly the same size.
Which animal left this print?
1. Horse
2. Wolf
3. Rabbit
4. Deer
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4. A deer. This is the classic heart-shaped track of a deer trail in sandy soil. The tip of the heart points in the direction of travel. This track is from a mule deer but would be indistinguishable from a white-tailed deer. A typical deer track measures about 2 to 3 inches long.
Which animal left this print?
1. Darkling beetle
2. Great blue heron
3. Squirrel
4. Mouse
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1. A darkling beetle. These tiny tracks are from a darkling beetle in sand. Some of these prints show their distinctive arrow-shape pattern, which points toward their direction of travel. In this case, the beetle was walking toward the right. The width of this trail is about 0.75 inches wide.
Which animal left this print?
1. Skunk
2. Great blue heron
3. Gray squirrel
4. Raccoon
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3. Gray squirrel. These prints of a western grey squirrel show the typical features of most rodent tracks. They have four toes on their front feet (track on the right) and fives toes on their hind feet (track on the left). The outer most toe is hard to see in this photo because of the rock the animal stepped on. The three middle toes of the hind feet fall together in the same line. Grey squirrel tracks often have bulbous tips of toes with sharp claws that may or may not register depending on the substrate.
Which animal left this print?
1. Raccoon
2. Bobcat
3. Coyote
4. Chipmunk
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1. Raccoon. Raccoons have five clawed fingerlike toes that can sometimes resemble little human hands. Their palm pads often register in a C-shape. In one of the most distinctive track patterns for North American mammals, raccoons use an extreme overstep walk, where their front foot from one side of the body falls next to the hind foot from the other side of the body (right front track on the right with left hind track on the left). Their tracks are about 2.5 to 3.5 inches long.
Which animal left this print?
1. Chipmunk
2. Great blue heron
3. Coyote
4. Bald eagle
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2. Great blue heron. Here we see a collection of great blue heron prints going in multiple directions in tidal mud. The track on the far right is moving to the right. Great blue heron tracks are very large, 6 to 8 inches long, which helps support their weight on the soft ground they often hunt in. The middle toe is slightly off-center from the back toe—a distinctive feature for all egrets and herons.