Observing your Garden: Animal Tracks

One of the most important lessons required for learning about animals in your garden and in your world is how to observe them when they aren’t there. The best way to do this is through observations of how they affected their environment.

All animals affect their environment.

 We leave footprints, crush (or eat) the local flora and fauna, we leave wastes and undertake all sorts of changes in the course of living. When preparing your garden it is important to keep your impact on your world in mind, and helpful to know what you share your world with so you can plan how to impact those other creatures.

Many books present lessons on how to identify an animal based on its footprint. but can you tell which way it was traveling? Are the footprints far apart (was it running)? Are the footprints close together (was it walking)? What other footprints are nearby?

It is a fun game that requires some logic.

We recently noticed some mouse tracks across the snow. They appeared out of nowhere. Mice don’t appear out of nowhere, so we surmised that there was a hole near where the tracks began (mice will cover up their holes again for warmth and protection). We saw the tracks wander here and there until the mouse found some grass to eat. It pooped and then went back home. The tracks weren’t there the day before and we saw them at dawn, so the mouse must have been out for a midnight snack.

You can use this form of observation to learn important things about your garden’s residents and visitors. We sometimes find nests in our field of birds and other creatures. Are they being used? We can notice how well they’re kept up, whether there are any spider webs over them, and collect other evidence to see whether they are abandoned. If they are and nobody else has taken up residence there that couldn’t easily find a new home after we till, we’ll till up the nest. Otherwise, we plow around their home, making sure to leave them some protective vegetation, too.

One time we saw two rabbit tracks wandering about. Where they met, there were a lot of tracks in every direction and some full body prints, too. The two rabbits had fought. The loser ran away, the winner chased, and then walked back home. We were able to learn that the population of rabbits was so high that they were competing for resources, and surmised (based on other evidence – or rather, lack of evidence – concerning the local coyotes, foxes, cats, and other predators) that there was not enough predation occurring to check their numbers. Now we will be certain to protect and help our carnivorous friends.

It is important too, if you want to find a lost animal. You can find a lost cow or horse this way, just by following their tracks.

It helps, too, to know something about the behavior of the animal. If you lose their tracks over some rocks and they leave very little other evidence, and you know where they like to live or eat or drink, you can guess their direction and maybe pick up the trail again. But if you don’t know the creature well, by circling around from the point at which you lost their trail you can usually pick it up again – knowing the animal saves you lots of time, though.

Once we rented a field in Arvada where a goose was killed. We saw the coyote tracks walk into some tall grass. We saw where the coyote laid down to rest until something walked by. We saw where the goose landed and walked past the grass and where the coyote sat up and ran onto the goose. We saw where the goose bit the coyote and where the coyote ripped off the goose’s neck. We saw that the coyote ate some of the goose right there, but also where the coyote carried the rest of the goose to a secluded spot for dinner. We were quick to notice that one of the goose’s feet presented so little nutrition to the coyote that the canine left it behind.

Birds are very hard to track because they fly and leave little evidence. When they’re on the ground or in trees, it is easier.

It sometimes helps to have an animal with good sense of smell. Pigs and dogs are excellent trackers because every animal will leave its smell wherever it goes. So long as the smell trail is fresh, the animal will be able to follow it.

Reading the ground and flora and fauna is like reading the newspaper. The facts are all written down for you, but you must use some imagination, too, if you’re going to get the whole story. We used our imagination to learn the goose’s terror and brave fight against the coyote, we used our imagination to “see” the rabbit fight for ourselves. We used our imagination to understand the small mouse’s thoughts as it wandered here and there looking for something to eat.

You learn so much by watching the animals, but you need not see them directly to learn from them.
Animals present important lessons on economy, on living, on all sorts of things. Watching an insect, you’ll see it spends much of its time cleaning itself. Watching how a cow selects a new patch of ground to eat, you’ll learn how to quickly and efficiently organize your own labors.

Reading tracks, you’ll learn how you affect your world.

Topics: animal tracks , coyote , goose , watching , Arvada