Did you know that you can learn to recognize and understand animal footprints found in nature? Well you can! You just need to know what to look for. Animal footprints, or tracks, can give us all kinds of clues about the animals that left them!
Shape
Animal tracks vary by species, as well as by the size of the animal within the species. For example, a mama bear is going to leave larger tracks than its cub, and a black bear’s tracks are going to look different than a set of elk tracks.
The shape indicates what species of animal, and claw marks in the track can reveal whether the animal is a predator, or prey. Claw marks often indicate carnivores, whereas herbivores usually lack claw impressions. That being said: claw visibility will vary by surface.
Cats have round pads and retractable claws, dogs have oval pads with four pad impressions and visible claws. Deer have two tear-drop shape pad impressions with no claws (sometimes with two smaller pads underneat the tear-drop shapes), whereas bears will have five toe impressions with visible claws.
Track Patterns
Walking, trotting, bounding- depending on what the animal is doing, their pattern will look different. Track spacing can help to identify the animals size, and the gait (or how far the distance is from one set of tracks to another) will help identify how fast the animal’s speed.
Track Identification tips
It helps to count the number of ‘toe’ impressions. Also look for claw impressions, and observe the general shape and depth (depending on the soil the track is found in- the deeper the track, the larger the animal!).
Seasonal track changes
Snow and mud affect how clear tracks can be read. If it has been raining, it will be easier to spot tracks in puddles and in mud. It can be easy to spot tracks in the snow, depending on the depth of the snow and how fresh it is.
Download the printable PDF below and see if you can match the tracks to the animals! Hint: Take a look the animal’s feet if you get stuck.
Additional Resources:
Play a classroom KAHOOT based on the topic of animal tracks: Click Here!