Tracking Desert Animals: A Beginning

By members of the Anza-Borrego Tracking Team:

Joseph Hopkins,+ Arun Balakrishnan*, Karin Vickars,**+

Crawford N. “Mac” McNair,**+ Donna “Dee” Ghosh**, and Beth Shugan+

3-4 December 2010 and 29-29 January 2011

Intermediate Track and Sign with Barry Martin: 3-4 February 2012

“*” holds Level II certification in Track and Sign

“**” holds Level III in Track and Sign (only ten women in North America)

“+” holds National Association of Interpretation credentials

As Certified Interpretive Guide

Class Notes by Dr. John V. Richardson Jr.

I. Class Goals

A. To recruit volunteers for transepts

II. Class Objectives (unstated, but inductively created)

A. To learn proper vocabulary for describing feet, toes, and pads

B. To learn factors for determining direction of travel

C. To learn multiple factor decision tree rules to differentiate between canine and feline tracks

D. To learn key differentiating factors of domestic versus wild animals

E. To identify tracks of major desert animal families

III. The “Five Ws and One H” Principle of Circumstances:

The dynamic interaction of these components is more important than the mere listing here—

A. Who—made the track; identification of animal

B. What—interpretation of events (which can be extremely difficult)

C. When—was this made; aging (recent/old) of events

D. Where—trailing the animal (need to know toes from pads)

E. Why—was the animal here; eco-trailing

F. How—becoming like the animal to understand its behavior

IV. Justification/Significance of Evidence

Lots of reasons for involvement in this activity including:

A. Mortality studies

B. Corridor viability (e.g., propose overpasses based on data)

C. Dispersal of wildlife in habitat

D. Documenting loss of habitat (5095)

E. Preservation of habitat

F. Planning for the future, especially urbanization, increasing interactions due to

G. Requirement for some studies, such as a multi-species conservation plan

V. Looking at Tracks (Ethics and Etiquette)

A good tracker needs to consider the following “rules of thumb:”

A. Look for environmental evidence in the habitat (e.g., scat, feeding signs on plants) as well as tracks.

B. Examine with the tracks between you and the sun.

C. Dirt push helps determine direction.

D. Some, if not most, trackers believe that back-tracking is more ethical because it puts less stress on the animal.

E. Always respects other people’s interest in seeing what you have seen by walking alongside the track, so as not to destroy it.

F. “When in doubt, follow it out” (Tracking mantra)

VI. Sense Meditation before Tracking (suggested by Barry Martin)

A. Wide angle (180 or 135 degrees)

B. Listen to silence (or what you might hear)

C. Feeling (skin is the largest sense organ)—sun or wind

D. Smell (water in the air, rain, aroma)

E. Taste

VII. Track Morphology (i.e., structure)

A. Basic Vocabulary related to Track components

a. Pay attention to the claws, toes, pads, and their shapes as well as the negative space between the toes and pad:

Figure 1. Courtesy of AB Tracking Team (December 2010)

B. Numbering Toes

a. The ability to distinguish left and right is an important consideration as well as helpful in determining the direction of travel:

Figure 2. Courtesy of AB Tracking Team (December 2010)

VIII. How to Distinguish between Canine (e.g., dog such as the Canis familiaris) and Feline (cat such as the Felis rufus) Family Tracks

In order to answer the question whose track is this: First, ask why you think it is a particular animal rather than is it a particular animal, by considering all of the following variables before deciding. Since no single feature determines the family, you don’t want to jump to a premature conclusion (e.g., single factor reasoning). Simply vote yes or no for the presence of absence of features. Total the scores under yes/no. The predominance of evidence will lead you to some degree of confidence in your decision. For example, 8 out 10 points could be considered 80% confidence…

No.	Features	Canine (Coyote, Dog or Fox) Family	Yes/No	Feline (Bobcat, Cat, Mountain Lion) Family	Yes/No
1	Claws	Often present or show because they do not retract; “thick, blunt” in domestic dog		Absent, unless sliding or taking off
2	Metacarpal pad shape and size	Triangular and small (equal to toe pads)		Trapezoidal and large (enough to hold toe pads)
3	Metacarpal lobes	None present		Bilobed at top (if c shaped = cat) as well as trilobed at bottom (if m shaped = cat)
4	Negative space between pads	An X can be drawn without cutting palm pad; bigger than cat		An X will cut palm pad; smaller than dog
5	Pattern of pads	Symmetrical (mirror image)		Asymmetrical (cannot be folded onto self)
6	Shape of overall Track	Oval and narrow; slim		Round
7	Toes	wedge shaped; inner are equal in size; heavy, deeper, and larger;		Tear-drop shaped; there is a leading toe; lighter, shallower, and smaller
8	Toes, outer	Point out		Point forward
9	Floor	Uneven		Even
10	Environmental Evidence	Scat, tubular, containing dates or fur		Scat, tubular with twisted end
SOURCES: Lecture, 3/12/10; 1/28/11; and 2/3/12 & “Track Comparisons” & Elbroch, p. 133

IX. Track Identification of 7 Types of Animals Common to the Desert (links to each animal will follow after step-by-step framework of analysis is completed)

A. Mammals

1. American Badger (Taxidea taxus)—big front feet with long claws (longer distance between claw and pad)

2. Hooded Skunk (Mephitis macroura), part of the weasel family

3. Northern or North American Raccoon (Procyon lotor), human like

B. Birds

1. California Quail (Callipepla Californica)—three front toes, dots

2. Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), cuckoo family, K = inside of track

3. Common Raven (Corvus corax)

C. Canines

1. Coyote (Canis latrans)

2. Common Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus)

3. Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris)

4. Kit or Swift Fox (Vulpes velox), carniverous

D. Deer

1. Desert Big Horn Sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni), blocky print

2. Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), shaped for speed

E. Felines

1. Bobcat (Lynx rufus)

2. Mountain Lion, aka cougar (Puma concolor)

F. Lagomorphs

1. Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), precocial (having fur and vision and fend for themselves)

2. Desert Cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii), altricial, “meaning that they are born blind, hairless, and helpless,”

G. Rats

1. Desert Kangaroo Rat (dipodomys deserti)

2. Desert Wood Rat (Neotoma lepida)

3. Merriam’s Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys merriami)

4. White-tailed Antelope Ground Squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus)—big hind feet

X. Other Environmental Evidence

A. Signs of holes

i. Merlin’s Desert Holes

B. Scrape marks

C. Scat (a dichotomous key to identify many of the common desert animals is under development for the iPad and iPhone)

i. Smell of urine (less commonly used in NA due to health risks: Raccoon scat, especially, is dangerous)

1. Uric acid present in cat scat

2. Leptospires are present (potential health risk)

ii. Shape

1. Ropy, twisted (coyote)

2. Blunt ends with dark brick red and falls apart (raccoon)

3. Segmentation

1. Tootsie-roll like (bobcat)

iii. Size in diameter (illustrative examples below)

1. Coffee bean size likely to be desert big horn

2. 3/8 inch (kit fox)

3. 1 or more inches (mountain lion)

iv. Clusters of scat

1. Latrine, repeat business

2. Springcakes, clusters within a deposit (Mule deer)

v. Color as indication of age

1. Shiny (new)

2. Dusty, gray or chalky white (old)

vi. Contents and identification

1. Bloodmeal (i.e., dried blood; greenish color is dried blood; rich in N=13.25%, P=1%, and K=.6%)

2. Bonemeal (higher in P, between 12-13%)

3. Bones = carnivore

4. Dates (can be found in coyote, for example)

5. Fur (can be found in coyote, for example)

6. Mice (can be found in kit fox, for example)

7. Seeds (can be found in raccoon, for example)

vii. Readings on Scat

1. Dennis A. Danner, “Comparison of coyote and gray fox scat diameters,” The Journal of Wildlife Management 46 (no. 1, January 1982): 240-241.

2. Dana M. Sanchez, Paul R. Krausman, Troy R. Livingston, and Philip S. Gipson, “Persistence of carnivore scat in the Sonoran Desert,” Wildlife Society Bulletin 32 (no. 2, 2004): 366-372.

3.

D. Vegetation

i. Direction of cut and cleanness

1. Clean and 45 degrees is rabbit

2. Bushy and 90 degrees is woodrat

XI. Gait Analysis based on Number of Prints and Patterns (as well as Rhythmic versus broken rhythms)

A. Two (slower gait) prints or four (faster gait) prints

i. Walk (2 prints), creates a wider trail; three types of walks:

1. Under step (F before H)

2. Direct register (H on top of F), narrower track

3. Over step (H before F)

ii. Trot (2 prints), somewhat narrower track than walks

1. Diagonal synchronization (opposite sizes moving together)

2. Coyotes generally do a side-trot (where the H is all on one side of the centerline) due to longer distances to cover

iii. Lope (4 prints), H before F; closer to centerline of track

iv. Gallop (4 prints)—airborne (leaving nothing in between)

v. Sequentially narrower width moving from walk to trot to lope and a gallop

C. Some walk with interesting broken rhythms which include:

B. Hopping, paired or angled front prints (F before h), four prints

C. Skipping

D. Loping, H before F (weasel family), four prints

E. Pacing or two-beat lateral gait (e.g., giraffe and camel)

F. Pronking/stotting

G. Bounding (H before F because the rear is coming around the front; e.g., rats and rabbits with a Y-shape track, where the top of the Y is the rear feet and the bottom of the stem indicates direction of travel

XII. Bird gaits

A. Walk on their hind limbs; fly with their front limbs

B. Walk on their toes = digitgrade

C. Four toes rather than 5 for mammals

D. Pad is the metatarsal; toe number 1 = hallux

E. Anisodactyl, nisodactyl, and totipalmate

F. Gaits

i. Walk on the ground (game birds)

ii. Hops, then probably a perching bird (missing toe #1)

G. Scat

i. Is from a bird, if white, uric cap is present (looks like toothpaste)

ii. Is male, if J-shaped

iii. Is female, if oval

H. Left foot = 0. Or Right foot = .0

XIII. Glossary of Technical Terminology

Every field has its jargon, or technical vocabulary. To engage fully in the community’s discourse, you need to understand what other people are saying; and you, of course, need to be able to describe what you are seeing:

Anisodactyl	Three toes in front, one behind (hallux)
Bounding	Type of gait requiring synchronicity
Centerline	Tracks on left and right of travel through the middle of the trail
Claw	Retractable (fox is semi-retractable); pointed, curved appendage at end of toe; made of keratin. For catching and holding prey as well as climbing and digging; see also nails
Digitigrade	Walks on toes for pouncing or jumping or stalking such as coyotes
Digit	Numbered 1 (thumb is inside), 2, 3 (middle and largest and most forward), 4 and 5 (outside)
Direct Register	Print on top of print (often/always hind on top of front track) in any gait (see overstep and understep)
Direction	Straight ahead, if toes in front of pads or Y-shape for rabbits
Floor	Measured at the bottom of the wall, equal to the true track. May be flat (as in mule deer) or concave (as in desert big horn).
Front	Bigger print if weight of animal is forward
Furred	Light delicate print (of a kit fox which is densely furred)
Fused	The metacarpal pad does not show separate palm or heel pads
Gaits	How an animal moves. The continuous, unbroken rhythm of the animal’s movement; relative to its speed, which may be said to be slow, faster, or fast: i.e., a walk, trot, gallop as well as bounding, pacing, and pronking or stotting. Lopes and hops and skips
Hallux	Big toe (in birds)
Heel pad	Posterior part of metacarpal pad; may be triangular or trapezoidal
Hind	The foot at the posterior (rear, or back) of the animal
Inner	Toes 3 and 4
Iso
Lagomorph	Order which includes hares and rabbits as well as pikas
Large	Contrasted to small; raccoon has larger hind tracks while badgers have larger front feet.
Left	Opposite the right side of the animal
Lobes	Of the metacarpal pad
Metacarpal pad	Includes the palm (anterior) and heel (posterior); may be fused in the case of feline family
Nails	Flat appendage projecting from the toes; may be small stubs or large; see claw
Negative space	Space between the impression of toe pads and palm pads. Shapes can be C, H, or X. X-shape is canine and is a pyramid shape. C-shape around metacarpal pad is feline (e.g., bobcat) and a splayed-H is fox.
Outer	Toes 1 or 2 and 5
Overall track	Measured at top of outer wall; includes the floor and slope of wall
Overstep	Hind ahead of front print; faster than an under step
Pacing	Type of gait: giraffe
Pad	Cushions “characterized by thin, pigmented, keratinized, hairless epidermis covering subcutaneous, collagenous, and adipose tissue” (Wikipedia; corrected to American spelling).
Palm pad	Forward of the heel pad; separate metacarpal pads are fused together (36)
Plantigrade	Walks on entire foot (such as humans, bear, raccoons, and skunks)
Pressure Ridge	Indicates direction of travel
Pronk	Type of gait, box shaped
Rear	Posterior (hind or back) foot
Right	Opposite the left side of animal
Rotary	Disunited; orbital movement in socket (see Wikipedia’s Lead, leg)
Scat	“when old, scat turns pale gray to chalky white in color” (Scat 101)
Shape	Slim oval (front to rear) or round
Stance	May be Plantigrade, digitigrades, or unguligrade
Stride	Distance between the same foot (measuring from trailing edge to trailing edge or front edge to front edge); equal to the hip to shoulder length
Substrate	Walking surface such as grass, mud, rock, sand or snow
Symmetry	Balance between ‘the right and left sides of track” (34); almost or not, in which case, asymmetrical
Toe pad	Tear-drop shape for cat family; can help you tell the direction of travel
Track length	From front most claw to back of metacarpal pad
Track width	Outer measure of animal’s movement
Trail width	Based on measuring the overall width from the outer toes of left foot to outer toes of right foot’s track or print; the outside of the tracks
Transect	Systematic coverage of an area; typically 1K along a line--“a sample strip of land used to monitor plant distribution, animal populations, etc., within a given area” (The Free Dictionary); divided into 250 M sections
Transverse	Forward and backward
True track	Real width of a track based on the overall track minus floor’s width
Unguligrade	Stance on knuckles or tips of the toes (such as mule deer or big horn sheep). The middle two toes
Outer toe	Shapes include wedge; may point forward or outward
Under step	Front foot is ahead of hind foot, but hind foot covers part of front (47-48). Slower than an overstep
Wall	Depth from substrate’s surface to the floor of track
Zygodactyl	Pairs=two toes pointing forward and two backward, especially birds
SOURCES: Lecture notes; pages references in parentheses are to Elbroch (2003)

XIV. Researchable Questions

A. Why does mammal scat turn white? (in progress; check back for link)

B. Reliability and Validity of Transect Data (due to detection and collection sampling errors)

i. Dana M. Sanchez et al., “Persistence of Carnivore Scat in the Sonoran Desert,” Wildlife Society Bulletin 32 (no. 2, 2004): 366-372.

ii. Livingston, T. R., Gipson, P. S., Ballard, W. B., Sanchez, D. M. and Krausman, P. R., “Scat removal: a source of bias in feces-related studies,” Wildlife Society Bulletin 33 (No. 1, 2005): 172–178.

C. Handedness in Animals (note that most DNA is right-spiral)

XV. Volunteer Activities

A. Transects for San Diego Tracking Team (conducted four times per year)

i. Prior to 2006, 58 transects west of mountains

ii. Grapevine Canyon, #59 (SDG&E northern power line, Sunrise PowerLink)

1. Carnivores

iii. The Narrows (San Felipe Creek wildlife corridor), #60

1. Big horn sheep crossing

2. Carnivores

iv. Barrel Springs (OW SVRA), #61

1. Badgers

v. Imperial County, #62

vi. Tule-Eriogonum, #66

XVI. Useful Technology:

1) Notebook and Clipboard

2) Digital Camera

3) Tape Measure

4) Knee Pads

5) Latex Rubber Gloves

6) Botanical Tweezers or wooden coffee sticks (from In-n-Out Burger)

XVII. Interesting and Useful Websites:

1) Nature Tracking (Jonah Evans, Texas)

a. Excellent photos of mammal tracks

2) Virtual Dirt Time (Dennis Deck, Portland, Oregon)

a. “Track Identification” for beginners; photos of model tracks and gaits in different substrates

3) How to Learn Animal Tracking

a. Seven useful steps for beginners wishing to start out on their own

4) Gary Ritchison, “Characters (sic) of the Feet,” Ornithology, BIO 554/754, Eastern Kentucky University

5) Beartracker’s Animal Tracks Den (Kim A. Cabrera, Charter Member, ISPT)

a. Good source for life history as well as track photographs

6) Scatology 101 (Desert Exposure)

a. Covers ten common animals: rabbit, mule deer, packrat, domestic cat, gray fox, bobcat, coyote, domestic dog, and cougar

b. Use with caution due to possible “misleading generalizations and a few downright errors”

7) Dick Newell’s Orange County Trackers

a. Covers 5 considerations: shape, content, size, color, location and then canine, deer, feline, opossum, rabbit, raccoon, skunk, squirrel, toad, and woodrat in detail

8) International Society of Professional Trackers

9) CyberTracker.org, Towards a Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Network

a. Provides Tracker Evaluations (1, easy; 2, moderate; and 3, hard)

10) Western Tracking Institute (Barry Martin)

a. One of the most knowledgeable trackers in the US (scoring 102 in one CT.org evaluation)

11) Earth Skills, “Basic Tracking & Awareness” (Jim Lowery)

12) List of Qualified Trackers (Qualified Trackers Wiki, South Africa)

a. Find additional qualified trackers

13) Anza-Borrego Tracking Team

a. Regional tracking group, joined to the SDTT as a constituent team

14) San Diego Tracking Team (SDTT)

a. Note that page is slow to load

b. Bob Cat (Lynx rufus)

15) University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, “Animal Tracking” (39 superb color PP slides)

XVIII. Bibliography of Recommended Readings

1) Mark Elbroch, Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003). –The standard work on this subject.

2) Diane K. Gibbons, Stories in Tracks and Signs: Reading the Clues That Animals Leave Behind (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008). –Covers some desert animals such as the coyote.

3) Louis Liebenberg, The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science. Claremont, South Africa: New Africa Books, 2001. –Out of print, but supposedly reissued in September 2011; see review.

4) Barry Martin, Wildlife Survey: Pocket Guide to Key Species: Southern California. Western Tracking Institute, August 2011. –Drawing upon 7 sources, this pamphlet is a convenient for the shirt- or pants-pocket, covering 22 common desert animals; would be more helpful if organized into types rather than an alphabetical listing, though.

XIX. Field Notes (Saturday, 4 December 2010)

A. 7:30 AM meet at flagpole of A-B State Park Visitors Center and car pool to Palm Canyon wash, under partially cloudy skies; grew cooler with occasion sunny patches

i. Saw a Cooper’s hawk and several (called a charm, a troubling, or a hover of) hummingbirds (probably Costa’s)

ii. Presence of hawk may reduce hummingbird “nest predation” according to Harold G. Greeney and Susan M. Wethington (2009)

B. Assigned to “expert group” which we named the Roadrunners

C. Rotated among facilitators who showed us different scenarios

D. Photographs:

i. Quail Tracks

ii. Chuparosa cut by wood rats

XX. Field Notes (Saturday and Sunday 29-30 January 2011)

A. 7:30 meeting at flagpole

B. Photographs

i. Demonstrations

ii. Tracks

XXI. Field Notes (Saturday, 4 February 2012)

A. 8AM in Plum Canyon parking lot; clear, light wind

B. 8:30AM in Grapevine Canyon (doing part of transect at 33 09.156N/116 28.609W, 2389 feet); 52 degrees in roadway

C. Sense meditation by Barry Martin

D. See online photos

Updated: 6 February 2012