 Capturing
Tracks
Follow the step-by-step guidelines to capture animal tracks.
You can begin to collect tracks outside your home.
1. Pour some damp sand or mud onto a tray and smooth it into
a thin layer.
2. Decide where you want to capture animal tracks. If you have
a pet in your house, such as a dog or cat, you can keep the
tray inside. If not, you can place the tray in your backyard,
your schoolyard or in a park area. Once you decide where you
want to track your animals, place the tray with the sand or
mud on the ground.
3. Leave the tray out overnight. You might want to put some
food on the tray to encourage an animal to walk on the wet sand
or mud. Do you see any resemblance to any of the tracks shown
below? |
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Making Tracks
Many mammals are secretive creatures. Always on the alert for
sounds or smells that might spell danger, they can slip away
before you have a chance to see them. But by keeping a keen
eye on the ground, you can use their tracks to find out quite
a lot about their behavior.
A knowledgeable tracker can tell many things from a set of animal
tracks: the identity of the animal, its size, weight, age, sex,
state of health, when it passed, where it came from, where it
was going and which way it was looking.
Do you know what mammal made each of these tracks? Click on
the tracks to see the answer!
  
  
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