Learn How To Be A Nature Detective

by Farmers' Almanac Staff Updated: February 1, 2026

From the 2003 Farmers’ Almanac | Animal tracking TIPS and TACTICS.
By Stephen Leahy
A freelance author located in Brooklin, Ontario.

There are legendary trackers who can glance at a gravel roadway and know where and when a mouse crossed the road, as well as the mouse’s sex and age, and what it had for lunch. Today, that kind of tracking ability seems almost magical, but hundreds of years ago highly refined tracking skills were needed for human’s survival. Like any skill, such as playing an instrument, once the basics are mastered, the refinements are learned, and the skill is used, tracking abilities can be honed to extraordinary levels.

New Jersey’s Tom Brown Jr. is world famous for his near-magical tracking skills. Taught by an Apache as a child, Brown spent decades developing his skills. He has been called upon to find more than 300 people lost in all types of wilderness, and has found nearly every one. Reportedly, Brown can look at a single footprint and know how old a person is, his or her height and weight, whether the person is right- or left-handed, and much more.

RELATED: The Leave No Trace Story

Brown’s abilities, and animal tracking in general, are based on a simple concept: Anything that moves through a forest or landscape, changes it. Those changes reveal a lot about the animal or person. The trick is to learn how to recognize the changes, or clues, and then to understand what is revealed. Tracking is very similar to a detective game in which the tracker needs to find the pieces of a puzzle and then fit the pieces together to create a picture of the animal who left the tracks.

Tracking is a wonderful way to learn about animals and about nature. Children love the adventure of tracking and searching for clues. They are particularly adept at role-playing games—“If you were this mouse, where would you go next?” This not only helps to find tracks, but also increases their understanding of an animal’s behavior.

GO WHERE THE ACTION IS

Animals leave many signs of their presence, but the best are tracks or footprints. In order to find footprints, you need to go to where the animals are most likely to live, walk, or congregate. One good place to look is in what’s often referred to as “edge habitat,” the transitional areas between field and forest, or forest and stream, or field and stream. Soft soils, such as muddy river banks, or wet sandy areas, and snow-covered ground are excellent places to discover tracks.

KNOW THEM BY THEIR TOES

Once you find some distinct tracks, count the number of toes. Toes often reveal what type of animal left the track. For example, deer and moose leave an imprint of two clear semicircular hoof-like toes; foxes, coyotes, dogs, and wolves leave oval-shaped prints showing four toes with claws and separate heel pads; cats and bobcats do the same, except their tracks have no claw marks visible.

Five-toed animals include weasels, minks, skunks, otters, raccoons, opossums, muskrats, beavers, porcupines, and black bears. And, animals with four front toes and five hind toes include chipmunks, mice, voles, red and gray squirrels, and woodchucks.

Some animals are easier to identify by the way they move. For example, a squirrel gallops, pushing off on its back legs and landing on its front legs, then swinging its back legs around in front to push off again. This leaves a distinctive pattern of tracks. Of course, rabbits, chipmunks and others are gallopers, too, so other clues (such as the number of toes) need to be looked for.

There are three basic track patterns:

Diagonal walkers — move a front foot and the opposite back foot simultaneously. Dogs, cats, and deer walk this way. Members of the cat and fox families place their back feet directly into the prints left by their front feet, which leave a tidy, tiptoe-like pattern.

Pacers — move both legs on one side at the same time. Bears, raccoons, skunks, and beavers are pacers.

Bounders — move both front feet and then both back. Weasels, squirrels, and minks do this.

Animals stick to their distinctive movement patterns 95% of the time, but most can shift into other patterns when necessary. A deer can jump to get over obstacles, and also gallop for extra speed.

MEASURE TWICE, IDENTIFY ONCE

Often the only way to identify animals with similar footprints and movement patterns is to measure the size of their footprints, the length of their strides, and width of their trails. A coyote’s footprint is about 3″ to 3 1/2″ long, while a fox’s is 2″ to 2 7/8″ (including nails). A bobcat’s and housecat’s footprints are close in size, but the lengths of their walking strides are very different. The long-legged bobcat leaves a 10″ to 13″ distance between its prints, while a housecat leaves only 6″ to 7″. Sizes also vary based on the age of an animal and its locale. For example, coyotes in the East are generally larger than those in the West.

When tracks are faint, put your face close to the ground and look at the tracks from the side, preferably with a light source on the opposite side of the prints. And don’t forget to move or lift leaves out of the way to uncover tracks.

In addition to tracks, animals also leave other clues that enable a nature detective to deduce what type of animal visited a place. In order to recognize those clues, you need to know as much as possible about a specific animal type. It’s very helpful to know what an animal eats, when it’s active, what common behaviors it has, and where it likes to hang out or live. Another very helpful clue is scat, or animal droppings. Getting to know an animal’s calling card will make your animal tracking much easier.

There’s some information on the next page that may help you when identifying clues:

GUIDES TO TRACKING BOOKS

A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America by James Halfpenny, Johnson Books
Tracking & the Art of Seeing by Paul Rezendes, HarperCollins
Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking by Tom Brown Jr., Berkley Books

TRACK MEASUREMENTS

Sizes are for front paws (length x width) and stride lengths

FOX & COYOTE

Footprints: Oval shape, four toes, with claws showing

Red Fox: Size: 2″ to 2 7/8″ by 1 5/8″ to 2 1/8″
Stride: 10″ to 14″

Eastern Coyote: Size: 3″ to 3 1/2″ by 1 7/8″ to 2″
Stride: 13″ to 16″

Other clues: Dog or Coyote? The middle two toenails of a coyote are close together and point straight forward, while a dog’s are farther apart and point more to the sides. Also, a coyote’s or a fox’s track pattern is neat and purposeful, whereas that of a dog often wanders all over the place. A fox puts its hind foot exactly in the same spot as its forefoot.

RED & GRAY SQUIRRELS, MICE, CHIPMUNKS

Footprints: two small, circular front feet with four toes, and two long, oval back feet with five toes.

Sizes: Generally very small, so it’s easy to identify by the width of the trail they make:
Mice: less than 2″
Chipmunks: 2″ to 3 1/2″
Red squirrel: 3″ to 4″
Gray squirrel: 4 1/2″ to 5 1/2″

Other clues: A pile of pine cone scales indicates the feeding spot of red squirrel. If a hole in the ground is a bit bigger than a golf ball, it’s probably the home of a chipmunk. Tunnels in grass mean a mouse or vole highway. Something moving fast through the trees is likely to be a gray squirrel.

DEER, MOOSE, ELK

Footprints: semicircular shape, with two toes

Whitetail Deer: Size: 3″ by 2″
Stride: 18″ to 24″

Mule Deer: Size: 3 1/4″ by 2 1/2″
Stride: 21″ to 24″

Elk: Size: 4″ by 4″
Stride: 24″ to 32″

Moose: Size: 7″ by 4″
Stride: 30″ to 50″

Other clues: Deer trails—deer are creatures of habit and often follow the same paths. Roughly trimmed branches are a sign of browsing or feeding. If the trimmings are four feet or lower, it usually reveals a deer has been eating there, but if the eating level is between four and seven feet it’s probably where a moose has been feeding.

BOBCAT

Footprints: circular shape, four toes, no claws showing
Size: 2″ by 1 7/8″
Stride: 10″ to 13″
Other clues: The hind foot lands in exactly the same spot as the forefoot when walking.