Exploring wildlife on a hiking trip
Generally, if you love hiking, you tend to have a strong appreciation for the beauty of nature, its fauna and flora. While it's easy enough to find your way around the summits with a GPS and a good sense of direction, identifying the wildlife and plants around you is a different skill altogether.
In this article, we'll help you identify the different clues that will allow you to find out which animals live around you.
If you want to get started with wildlife photography, this article can help you identify the tracks left by animals so you can find them and capture your best shots!
Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash
The different types of animal tracks to find in nature
The first tracks you'll find in nature are also the most obvious — they are footprints animals — however, not all seasons are ideal for spotting tracks. In snow or mud you'll easily come across prints, but in summer on dry ground it can be much harder, or even impossible, to find them. Winter hiking in the snow, as well as offering stunning landscapes, can give you a great opportunity to observe local wildlife!
You'll also find other clues that can be spotted year-round:
- Feeding remains: whether it's a pine cone, hazelnuts or even an animal carcass, these are all traces and clues that can reveal the presence of animals. The way a cone or nut has been eaten, or the size of the prey, are elements that help narrow down which species may be present
- Droppings are easily visible and recognisable clues that reveal the presence of nearby animals — shape and size are the key indicators
- Living areas: burrows, nests and shelters are also important clues when searching for signs of animal activity
- Passage marks: a ball of fur, an owl pellet, or marks left on a tree by claws, horns, teeth or antlers are all clues not to overlook in your search
- Sounds: the most obvious one is birdsong, which you'll hear easily — but mammals can also signal their presence
Photo by Enrico Mantegazza on Unsplash
If you want to observe animals or discover the wildlife around you, the key is to pay close attention to these different clues, stay curious and alert. Don't hesitate to photograph these tracks to help you identify them and work out which species might be present.
Animal tracks: the essential clue
If you're lucky enough to come across animal tracks, they are a key clue that can tell you which family of animals left the print.
You can easily recognise, for example, a bird's footprint in the snow where it has pecked at an insect or seed on the ground. We'll focus mainly on mammal tracks, which can be grouped into 3 distinct families.
Studying a track is valuable because it gives you an idea of the animal's size, tells you which direction it was heading, its gait, how long ago it passed through, and whether it was alone or in a group. All key information for understanding what's going on around you!
Plantigrade animals
Plantigrade species, like humans, walk on the soles of their feet. This includes bears, hares and rabbits, badgers, weasels, hedgehogs, marmots and squirrels.
What makes these animals — and the footprints they (and we) leave — distinctive is that you can easily make out all 5 toes. For some species, the claws on each toe can provide an additional clue about the animal you're looking at.
Digitigrade animals
As evolution demands, animals that need to move quickly have learned to shift their body weight onto the front of their paws to walk on their toes. This family includes canids (wolf, fox, dog, …), felids (lynx, cat, …) and also birds, which you can easily encounter in the wild.
Moving on the front of their feet allows these animals to travel faster and more silently, whether hunting prey or escaping a predator.
These tracks show 4 toes along with a digital pad at the rear.
Unguligrade animals or ungulates
Finally, at the next stage of animal evolution, we find species whose toes have fused together and which walk on their nails.
This family includes chamois, roe deer, wild boar, red deer and mouflons. These animals also have very distinctive and easily identifiable tracks.
With this basic knowledge, whatever environment you find yourself in, you now have the tools to go in search of wildlife. Don't hesitate to stay curious, take photos, and connect with enthusiasts or local professionals to deepen your knowledge and learn to discover the nature around you
