Curriculum Overview

A Tracker's

TRAIL

Trailing Wildlife is divided into four parts, based on the student’s ability: Introductory (the Trailing section of this website), Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. The Introductory section provides a taste of the overall curriculum and helps you to locate a trailing site. The Beginner section is about learning the basics of following trails. The Intermediate section is about learning the basics of assessing a trail's age. The Advanced section is about learning when and how to approach so that you can see the animal.

By the end of the Introductory section of Trailing Wildlife, you should:

Have a convenient site where you can reliably find and follow a wild ungulate’s trails for 30-60 minutes at a time

By the end of the Beginner section of Trailing Wildlife, you should:

Have at least one additional site, perhaps less convenient, where you can trail wild ungulates and other animals in either 1) a different substrate or 2) a different habitat, relative to humans (more like wilderness or more suburban, for example)
Be confident in your ability to identify the maker of the trails you usually follow

Black bear scat.

Bobcat and raccoon tracks on a riverbank.

White-tailed deer antler rub.

White-tailed deer scat.

White-tailed deer track in Beech leaves.

Moose track in moss.

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Be able to recognize in the trail when the animal was and was not moving in its natural rhythm (its “baseline gait”)
Be able to use weather sequencing to estimate the age of tracks and
Have a fair understanding of how fresh tracks look different from old tracks if recent weather has been the same
Be able to move along a trail and pay attention to the broader environment at the same time
Have ideas about where to look for the trail when you “run out” of tracks
Have basic ideas about how and where to look for productive tracking sites
Have a sense of a trailing practice that you can reasonably do and goals that you can reasonably meet
Probably have followed at least 50 trails for at least 25 yards each in a variety of substrates

By the end of the Intermediate section, you should additionally:

Have a site where you can trail the largest wild ungulate in your region
Be able to anticipate what trails in the field will look like based on recent weather and current conditions
Have greater clarity about the age of tracks and sign, including scat, broken twigs, crushed leaves, browsed vegetation
Have familiarity with bird alarms and what they might indicate in the environment around you

Have experience of rhythm and momentum in how you follow a trail
Have a better memory for landscape features and be better able to locate them when you need to
Be able to tell from the track patterns when an animal has sped up and slowed down, even when it is not running
Have improved ability to see tracks in difficult and very difficult substrate
Be better able to anticipate when you will find feeding sign and where
Know when you have spooked the animal you have been following
Know some options for what to do after you’ve spooked the animal
Have a fair sense of the animal’s preferred areas in your tracking spots
Have strategies for dealing with frustrating trails

Two Gray Fox tracks, the more recent at right.

Two white-tailed deer tracks, the more recent at left.

A black bear stood and rubbed its back on this tree.

Bobcat sit spot showing 4 tracks and hind heels.

Tracks of a Coyote in its natural rhythm.

Moose bed.

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Be better able to distinguish the tracks of individuals that moved in a group of animals
Be better able to anticipate the locations of beds
Have better awareness of your environment as you move along the trail
Have followed approximately 75 more trails, probably totaling a distance of at least 10 miles

By the end of the Advanced section, you should additionally:

Be able to recognize trail conditions that indicate that the trail is extremely fresh
Be able to identify a running gait based on a single track
Know strategies for approaching the quarry without it being aware of you even if you have previously spooked it

Black bear bed on a broken spruce sapling.

Tracks of Bobcat mother and kitten on a riverbank.

Bobcat scrape and scent post.

White-tailed deer feeding sign on acorns.

White-tailed deer track.

A black bear in its den.

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Have a greater awareness of wildlife alarms and how to get past them
Recognize signs of predator/prey relationships on the landscape
Have improved recognition of fresh trails
Have improved ability to see the quarry when it is camouflaged by the environment
Be able to lead people on a trail as well as support someone else who is leading
Have improved intuition for the movements of wildlife
Be able to move with momentum even when you cannot see tracks
Have greater confidence in your ability to discern routes that the quarry did not follow
Know strategies for making an approach and an exit
Have improved ability to follow trails in a wide variety of substrates

Have improved ability to recognize the trail in extremely challenging substrate
Have an improved sense of where on the landscape it would be easiest for the animal to sense your presence, not just by sight
Have an improved sense of where animals like to position themselves on the landscape in particular conditions
Have followed approximately 100 more trails, probably totaling a distance of at least 25 miles

Overview of Curriculum