When I was first learning to track animals, often the biggest challenge was knowing where to find real tracks to practice with.
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of great strategies, and even developed some unique approaches of my own that help me find really cool tracking spots whenever I visit new locations.
The best places to find animal tracks are any environment with lots of mud or sand… this includes beaches, muddy trails through the woods, along the edges of water, under bridges, and sometimes even in a backyard garden.
Of course, finding tracks in some locations is trickier than others.
But in my experience, every landscape has it’s own secret tracking spots with amazing opportunities that almost nobody knows about.
Very often when I work with beginning trackers who are struggling to find practice opportunities, the problem is not so much that there aren’t tracks… it’s just that they don’t know where & how to look.
So today, let’s find out where the best opportunities are in YOUR landscape.
If you ever feel you can’t learn tracking because you don’t have access to ideal tracking substrate, this article will share some great tips I think you’ll find super helpful & practical.
#1 Know The Animal Tracking Substrates
Tracking substrate simply means the physical surface on which tracks are being found like mud, sand, snow, leaf litter, etc.
It’s useful to know that different substrates bring different opportunties for finding different types of animals.
For example:
If you want to track the finer details of small mammal tracks like voles & shrews, you’re going to need much finer & more crisp substrate than what’s required to identify larger animals like dogs and cat tracks.
On the other hand, if your goal is to track large hoofed animals like moose or elk… their tracks can often be readily trailed even in the middle of a forest in what would normally be considered very difficult tracking substrate.
Here are some key attributes & opportunities to consider in different types of substrates:
Tracking In Mud
Mud is great for seeing the clear details in tracks like toes, pad shape & toenails.
If you want to track small mammals, birds, or frogs & toads, then mud is going to be an essential teacher because it helps you study the small details.
Another nice thing about mud is that in many environments it’s a very common substrate, which makes it easy to find.
If you live in a place that doesn’t have long sandy beaches, then mud could be your ideal tracking substrate.
There are great opportunities to find mud puddles – even in the middle of a forest, on hiking trails, or around the edges of lakes.
Of course, the degree of moisture & depth of the mud does make a difference.
When mud gets too deep, it can be hard to access, and tracks can easily become sloppy.
But with the right combination of give and firmness, mud can provide some of the most crystal clear detail you will ever find for small mammals.
Tracks in mud will also tend to last for a long time, and hold their shape better than sand under pressure.
If you’re planning to do any plaster casting of tracks, mud will give better results than dry sand.
Tracking In Sand
If you have opportunities to practice tracking in sand, then you’re in good luck.
Sand is excellent for trailing animals over long distances and studying gaits or movement patterns.
The main challenge with sand is that tracks will tend to age more quickly and contain less detail compared to mud, especially when dry.
This does mean that any clear tracks you do find in sand are more likely to be recent, which could be a plus if you’re hoping to actually see the animal.
Wet sand can still sometimes be an excellent substrate for seeing the small details in small mammal tracks.
But more often for small mammals like voles & shrews, you’ll need to rely on different clues to identify what you’re actually seeing.
It’s often easier to identify different types of animals in dry sand by looking at the overall size, gait & habitat, rather than the specific details like number of toes, etc.
The one place where dry sand really does shine for the purpose of identifying tracks is when it comes to insect tracking.
Many insects are simply too small to leave impressions in mud, but in dry sand conditions, you can easily make out geometric patterns that can be confidently identified.
Tracking In Snow
Snow is another great substrate for trailing animals over long distances.
It’s also an excellent opportunity to do some tracking in places that you normally don’t get to study during spring, summer & autumn.
If you live in a place that gets snow cover during the cold season, this is an opportunity you won’t want to waste!
Just like with mud, you’ll notice the depth of snow makes a huge difference in terms of how well you’re able to see detail in tracks.
The ideal conditions are when you wake up to a thin dusting of snow that covers everything in fresh whiteness without making it hard for animals to trudge.
As the snow gets deeper, tracks can become very obscured, but trailing is still doable, and it’s a great exercise to help you learn how different animals are using the landscape.
Tracking In Leaf Litter
Even environments that you wouldn’t expect to hold opportunities for tracking can sometimes be surprisingly useful, even at beginner levels.
For example:
Hoofed animals like moose, elk & sometimes deer, can often be readily tracked in the middle of a thick forest with absolutely no clear substrate.
The key to tracking in a forest is to start with the largest hoofed animals and gradually get smaller.
With enough practice, you can eventually move on to large soft-padded animals like bears & humans (or even lions and elephants depending on where you live)
You’ll get better at finding more and more subtle signs until eventually it becomes possible to trail medium sized soft-padded mammals like coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, etc.
The big lesson to get when it comes to substrates is simply that there’s probably a lot more options to learn tracking in your local area than you currently realize.
Just think about what kinds of animals you’d like to track, then focus on finding spots that will give you lots of opportunities to do it!
#2 – Looking For Animal Tracks In Context
Here’s another key thing to consider…
Where exactly in the overall landscape context should you be looking in order to find the greatest variety of tracks?
The best results will come when you look for tracks in places with the highest populations & different types of animals by using knowledge of animal behavior & ecology to guide your focus.
Take a look at this photo for a great example.
Now where do you think you would find more tracks:
- Out in the middle of open sand?
- Or right on the edge of that forest island where the sand intersects the tree-line?
Well, of course it’s going to be at the edge of the forest… because animals LOVE edge habitats!
The forest edge provides a lot more cover & food resources for a greater variety of animals, while still offering ideal substrate for tracking.
This lack of basic ecological tracking knowledge is why beginners will sometimes go to a big sandy beach, and still find nothing but dogs & human tracks. It’s because they found the sand… but they didn’t find the animals!
When tracking at sandy beaches, you’ll very likely discover a huge mess of dog tracks, human tracks and maybe a few birds…
So what if you want to find more wild animals at the beach?
Most beaches do actually have lots of wild animals, but their activities will be centered around certain key hotspots.
You need to practice looking for these hotspots, and focus your energy in places where the animals are most likely to be gathering.
Here’s what I mean by looking for “hotspots”:
One of my best tracking spots is a big sandy beach next to the ocean.
It’s about 3 or 4 km long, but every time I visit, almost 100% of the wild animal tracks are found within a tiny 50 m stretch of land.
Now think about that… Almost 100% of the tracks are found in less than 1% of the actual beach… That’s crazy!
It’s tucked away at a part of the beach where there’s less ideal sand conditions, less human activity, and the scrubby coniferous forest touches almost right up against the ocean.
If you didn’t know to look for the edge, then you would never find those animals!
So make sure you spend extra time checking the less obvious places where nobody goes, especially where tracking substrate touches against a variety of animal habitats.
In the woods, look for the edges of wetlands, lakes & creeks. Look for mud puddles & places where the water pools up during spring.
At the beach, it’s in the tiny 3 foot strip along the top of the sand where you’ll always find 90% of the mice tracks, vole tracks, foxes, porcupines, shrews, squirrels, rabbits and all kinds of bird tracks.
This is one reason why in tracking we say that the more advanced you are, the less you need to look at the ground.
It’s not that you won’t still look at tracks, but you’ll also have a better sense of exactly where to look in the first place.
As you go deeper, your instincts become honed about ecology so you can look at a landscape and know very quickly where you’re most likely to find animals.
#3 – Find Your Seasonal Tracking Oasis
Many beginning trackers don’t consider the fact that a lot of the best practice spots are also highly seasonal.
Sometimes your best tracking locations will change dramatically depending on the time of year.
It’s very possible to explore a hiking trail in summer and come away thinking it’s a horrible spot for tracking, only to return in spring and find it filled with track-laden mud puddles.
As you’re looking for new tracking spots, make sure you consider any seasonal influences that might create periodic opportunities to find good substrate.
Since tracks are easiest to find in wet sand or mud, water is very often one of the biggest clues about where to look.
Maybe you live in a place that experiences seasonal flooding or draughts. These changes in water levels could create some unique opportunities that you should definitely explore.
Most people probably imagine their ideal tracking conditions as being in a vast sand dune with clear trails you can follow for miles without losing sign.
While some people are blessed to have these conditions, most environments do actually require a bit more creativity.
But DON’T underestimate the amount of tracking discoveries that can happen in 5 square feet of mud puddle over a period of 5-10 springs.
- If you can find even one good tracking spot for each season, it’ll give you the opportunity to put in your dirt time and dramatically improve your skills.
- The reality is that many of the world’s best trackers developed their skills in little pockets of dust or mud puddles that were visited over and over again for many years.
- And of course, if you live in a place that has snow… you’ll definitely want to take advantage of the winter season.
#4 – Use Google Earth To Find New Tracking Spots
Google earth is a great way to find new tracking spots.
This is one of my own personal favorite scouting tricks that I’ve really never heard any other trackers talk about.
Looking at maps & satellite imagery helps you identify big picture patterns & hidden opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise catch.
Here’s how it works:
- Just open up a new window in google earth or use google maps with the satellite view switched on.
- Start by looking at the area closest to your home. Look for spots that won’t require a lot of travel time to explore, and you might surprise yourself with what you find within walking distance.
- Look for places where water meets land. This could be along the shoreline of large bodies of water like oceans & lakes. Or an inland river or creek.
- Look for hiking trails & parks along the edge of water. Anywhere you could possibly gain access to the water’s edge is a good spot to explore and look for tracks.
- Also make note of any trails & land access regardless of whether there’s obvious water. Pretty much any location where you can walk or hike will have tracks after rain.
- Start by visiting the closest locations to your home, and gradually expand outwards. Just choose a few potential locations. Make note of any mud, sand or actual tracks you find. Also make a point of visiting in various seasons as water levels rise & drop.
As you scout new locations, keep in mind all the tips from earlier sections of this article.
And always be strategic about your goals, strengths & weaknesses when it comes to developing tracking skills!
We’ll talk about how to be strategic in the next section…
#5 – Choosing The Right Mix of Tracking Spots
Think about your goals, strengths & weaknesses when it comes to finding live tracks.
Depending on your goals, you might want to focus on finding different types of locations to practice your tracking skills.
If your goal is something like,
I want to be able to confidently identify every mammal track that exists in my bio-region.”
Then you’ll need to look for different types of locations compared to a goal like,
I want to track deer in the woods and get better at seeing large mammals.”
Your strengths & weaknesses include any specific opportunities or limitations in terms of access and free time you have to visit local tracking spots.
How far should you travel to find tracks?
Of course, everyone would love to have their dream tracking spot right in the backyard, but this just isn’t always possible.
If your favorite spot is so far away that you never go, then you’re not going to put in the necessary practice.
You also shouldn’t underestimate the potential for less remarkable tracking spots to be great teachers if it means you can visit more often.
On the other hand – Sometimes it might be worthwhile to occasionally travel a bit out of your way if it means you get to spend an afternoon at a top notch tracking spot.
If you’ve only ever tried tracking in difficult conditions, it might be worth investing a bit of energy to find a spot that has really awesome substrate… Even if that means taking a yearly camping trip to a completely different environment.
- The ability to find tracks in any environment is a skill that gets better with practice. Eventually you’ll develop almost like a 6th sense for where to look in order to find tracks.
- You’ll be amazed at how many clear prints of wild animals you can find in little bits of substrate scattered around your favorite spots to explore.
- Always focus on finding spots that match how you’d like to develop your skills.
- Whenever you find a good spot, make a point of coming back to it repeatedly. Today you might just find dog tracks, but if you keep coming back week after week, who knows what you’ll find!
#6 – Finding Tracks On “Impossible” Surfaces
Never underestimate your ability to find tracks in places you never thought possible.
I regularly find cat tracks, raccoons, dogs & human tracks on my asphalt driveway by looking for the subtle impressions of muddy feet, and subtle changes in moisture.
Often it just looks like a patch of shiny light reflecting off the ground, but when you get close, it’s possible to make out the toes & clear details.
I’ve even had success tracking voles on this surface!
These hard-surface impressions can often be seen for days, even after they completely dry up from the sun.
The trick to seeing more starts with looking more.
You do have to practice, but it’s not really as difficult as you might think.
You’ll be amazed by what you find when you take a leap of faith and get down on all fours to just look more closely.
- Try lowering the angle of your visual field.
- Get down on your knees and notice how much dust there is on the ground.
- Walk around in circles & study the ground from different perspectives…
- Notice what angles & distances make tracks stand out the strongest.
#7 Best Time Of Day To Find Tracks
A big key to finding more tracks simply comes down to seeing tracks more clearly.
While the best time to go tracking is always whenever you have the opportunity… it’s also helpful to know that light conditions can influence how easy or difficult it is to actually see track impressions on the ground.
You could be standing 5 feet away from a beautiful set of bear claws, but if you’re not looking properly, it’s possible to miss what’s right in front of you.
This is more common than you might realize…
The easiest time of day to see tracks is in the morning and evening because the lowered angle of the sun makes shadows more pronounced.
Animals also tend to be most active around dawn & dusk, so an early morning tracking adventure can yield more live sightings, and it reduces a lot of the competition of human & dog activity.
The most difficult time of day to see tracks is mid-day because the sun is shining directly down.
Best practice is to try and keep any tracking substrate between you and the sun. This makes any impressions appear more pronounced and also prevents your shadow from covering over the tracks.
Experiment with what angle seems to work best for the current light conditions.
Cloudy days will also bring good results.
As with all things in tracking, dirt time is essential. The more hours you clock scouting new locations, getting down on all fours examining sand & mud, the more it will show in your overall tracking skills.
Keep going & never stop learning.
If you want more examples to help you practice identifying the tracks you find, go check out this online guide to animal tracks.
Let me know what you find out there!
Thanks Brian I love your site, you’ve provided so much useful info. Keep on tracking!
Thanks Chad!
I thank you very much for your kind assistance in learning the fine art of tracking! May you continue to provide your assistance to a lot of interested people for a very long time!🤔😇😇🤗😁😁😁😁