Here’s a link to our newsletter at Original Wisdom, with detailed answers to our Daily Tracking Challenge.
Answers for 20 – 25 May 2020
This is a time to create and share content that engages, entertains, educates and inspires the world. We post a question a day, except for Tuesdays because that’s Answer Day!
Answer list: cape clawless otter tracks from the Republic of South Africa; Eurasian hedgehog tracks from England; island spotted skunk from the Channel Islands off California, USA; red-headed weaver nest from the Republic of South Africa; vultures in a tree over a kill from the Republic of South Africa; white-tailed deer bed from Connecticut, USA
Amongst our global efforts to #flattenthecurve, we shared a few tracking photos on our Original Wisdom social media to help pass the time and keep our learning going. We posted a question a day, except for Tuesdays because that’s Answer Day!
The art and science of tracking develops creative and critical thinking skills, and curiosity and empathy, which also help us to better understand our place as caretakers of this beautiful world. The full expression of tracking includes more than just identifying tracks and signs. It also includes the interpretation of behaviours from tracks and signs, and the following and finding of animals (or people) using tracks and signs. Following and finding, or trailing, also builds confidence and leadership qualities in individuals, and teamwork among groups. Tracking requires us to really see the environment, and each other, and to reconnect to fundamental systems of living, which include knowledge of self, and connection to community (including non-human communities) and land. Tracking IS original wisdom. It’s both ancient, and new. Our ancestors tracked animals for food, clothing, shelter, and better quality of life. Today, we push the frontiers of tracking forward by including technology and new discoveries. One of the best things about tracking is that the “book of nature” is so vast that we can never know it all. It’s always exciting and always humbling.
Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Our question today comes from our Ngala Training Camp in the Greater Kruger area of the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Who’s tracks? In addition to an identification, can you tell us something about it, behaviourally?
Cape clawless otter in an almost direct register walk in South Africa, photos by Kersey Lawrence
I tried to demonstrate, here, what I like to see when someone shares photos of tracks or signs on social media that they want other people to help identify. I get so tired (It’s a petty gripe, I know.) of a singular blurry photo with no scale. So, here is what I recommend:
Scale – how big is it?
When you photograph a track or a sign to share with others, some type of scale is very important to help us to get a sense of the size. Sometimes morphology will help to confirm a track maker’s identification, but often, the size can be a deciding factor. Especially when you are just starting out. It’s impossible to tell some tracks and signs apart without knowledge of size.
Putting an easily recognizable object in the photo is very useful, or at least try to provide an estimated measurement. We’ve seen photos with car keys, pens, knives, multitools, hats, gloves, shoes, people’s hands and feet, lip-ice or chap-stick, a coin or money note, etc. Those are okay, but not ideal for identification. These objects can make a very interesting and artistic photo, and that’s fine if that’s what your goal is, but our goal here is documentation. Sometimes these objects are better than nothing (in the rare moment that you are caught out without anything else), but other times they are useless, depending on how the photos were taken.
The best thing is to use a ruler for scale, or tell us the measurements. I have a ruler attached to my phone case with velcro, and use my phone camera to take pictures with, so I’m never caught without, but… I’m an obsessive sort of tracker.
Don’t post blurry photos, if you can’t see the details of the photos, neither can anyone else. Don’t try to “trick” people or post deliberately misleading photos, or to “test” people on tracks that you “made up”. That’s just rude.
Identify your location. For example, “near Pretoria, South Africa,” or “on the coast of Maine, USA”.
What’s the habitat? For example, “in the middle of a trail in a small wooded area,” or “near a river,” or “in my garden in Jo’burg”. If it’s not apparent in the photo, tell us in the text.
Take a few photos of different, individual tracks, from directly above them (not on an angle). Leave some space around the edges. This might prevent you from cropping out parts of the track that you hadn’t noticed.
Try to identify the feet in the tracks, which are the fronts and which are the hinds? Does it have 2 feet (a bird), 4 feet (most mammals), or more (most invertebrates)? Take photos, from directly overhead, using scale, of the groups of tracks – their position relative to each other can be very helpful.
Then “zoom out” and take a few photos looking down the trail, in the direction that the animal is traveling. These photos can be a combination of angled photos, and ones directly looking down the trail, and from directly above. What you are trying to “capture” is how the animal was moving (it’s gait or track pattern), and a little bit about what the habitat looks like, and a “bigger-picture view” that might provide more evidence than you are seeing. Panoramic shots, or even video taken slowly from above can be great for recording how the animal is moving, too.
We call the above collection of photos, including a few close ups from directly above, a group shot of the feet, the gait or track pattern, and habitat (all with an accurate item for scale) – a “photo series”.
If you can’t always get all of the above photos (due to poor lighting, a weird angle, an obstruction, or lack of time), at least try to provide as much as you can.
Okay, rant over, lol.
A lot of our participants got this one. Otter tracks are so recognizable when they are clear and when the track pattern is there. The are the tracks of a cape-clawless otter, taken in our reserve in the Greater Kruger of South Africa. We don’t see them a lot, so it has been exciting to see two different otter tracks in two different areas of our reserve in the past couple of weeks. The five toes are bulbous, with webbing, and, as the name suggests, there are no claws. This otter was approaching the underpass of a bridge, and I imagined it slowing down into an almost direct register walk from its usual lope pattern as it checked out the riverine area. They are always found near water. When the tracks aren’t great, or you’re new to this species, it can definitely be confused with baboon, vervet monkey, and even honey badger and porcupine, which all have very long, flat feet.
Well done to Robert Hendrix (Idaho, USA), Mike Watling (California, USA), Emilio Van Dyk (Durban, South Africa), Tjaart Weyer (South Africa), Cameron Pearce (South Africa), and Nico Kritzinger (South Africa).
Thursday, 28 May 2020
Our question today comes from Southern England. The photos were contributed by CyberTracker Senior Tracker and Evaluator John Rhyder, who also owns the amazing Woodcraft School. Who’s tracks, and why?
Eurasian hedgehog tracks in West Sussex, Southern England, photos by John Rhyder
These are Eurasian hedgehog tracks. John says that the most confused species with this one is a rat, as they don’t have skunks, and polecats are more “mink” sized. The evidence for hedgehog is the toes are short, while to toe pads are long ovals. They have a wide straddle (trail width) and nearly always register (the hind foot lands directly on the front track, covering it up) to some degree in a walk, and they walk for long periods of time, unlike rats and polecats. They also have a long claw on toe 2 of the hind foot, which John suspects is for grooming in between their spines.
It’s very cool to see people from all over the world attempting these. Our correct answers came from Catherine Albertson (USA), who said. “I’m wondering if it is hedgehog. It doesn’t look like any species I am familiar with, but quite small with toe pads and claws, and gives the impression of a short-legged, wide-set creature with a somewhat waddling gait. Very cute!” Robert Hendrix (Idaho, USA) also got this one, and Søren Decraene (belgianwildlifetracker, Belgium), who said, “Hedgehog general shape, gait, and the toe nails of the hind feet get longer from toe 4 to 2.”
Friday, 29 May 2020
Our question today comes from Mike Watling on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands in the Channel Islands National Park off of California in the USA. Who’s tracks, and why?
Island spotted skunk tracks in the Channel Islands off of California, photo by Mike Watling
Well, Paul Glasser (USA), did such a great job trying to make this into a striped skunk, which was very close. This is a rare and endemic Channel Island spotted skunk, and these guys are tiny, as the measurements show.
Here are Paul’s comments:
“Well the upper left track sure jumps out as the left hind of a striped skunk, so naturally the next thing my brain does is look for the long claws of a front foot and see none. However, the lower left track does show the two bumps in the bottom of the front heel pad, and perhaps there is some disturbed dust where I expected the long front claws of a left front foot to leave marks as they curve slightly to the right, so I will call this the left front. So now I look for signs of a 1-2-1 gait and to the right of the lower left track (putative left front foot) I would expect to see a right hind track, but… I don’t. Now I scratch my head and, stuck in the rut based on my initial assumption that the upper left track is the left hind of a striped skunk, I spend my time wondering how this skunk is moving around until I have used up the amount of time allowed in an eval and finally end up calling this a striped skunk. That’s my final answer and I’m willing to change it. Brought to you by the let’s figure out some way to make this a striped skunk committee.”
And upon questioning about whether a smaller skunk exists there…
“We have the smaller spotted skunk in the PNW, but its hind foot heel pad is segmented into multiple small un-fused pads and toe five is lower. Eager to hear what this is!” And when Kim Cabrera (Track & Sign Specialist, California, USA) threw him an unintentional curve-ball with, “Note the heart-shaped pad on the hind tracks.” To which, he replied, “Hmmm… Going down the striped skunk line of reasoning I see only one hind track. Admittedly my argument is based strongly on that upper left track. Now you are forcing me to rethink and simply look at the gait and realize… is this simply a squirrel?”
Justene Tedder (KwaZulu-Natal), cut to the chase and use them interwebs! “I had to go and google about these islands as I was suspicious of an endemic rodent – because of the bounding pattern of the track. My guess is the spotted skunk – four pads on the hind feet in the top of the photo is typical and these skunks bound like rodents.”
Mike, the contributor of the photos, says, “This is an island spotted skunk from Santa Rosa Island, a sub-species of the western spotted skunk found only on 2 of the Channel Islands, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa. Genetic evidence suggests that island spotted skunks have been isolated on the northern California Channel Islands for >10,000 years. Largely overlook by scientist for the past decades, the park and conservation professionals are developing effective monitoring programs to better understand this island endemic species. Personally, I think they are cool little creatures with an attitude. Hopefully you can slip the spotted skunk into the daily challenge and give others an opportunity to learn about them.”
He elaborates on the differences between Island spotted skunk and spotted skunks in general. “As far as I know, there has been no track study that looked at the differences between island spotted skunks and their mainland counterpart. The island spotty is slightly longer than its mainland species and a little more buff, but I doubt those differences would be discernible in the tracks. My experience is that spotted skunks will get confused with other skunk species, in my local area in SoCal that happens to be striped skunks. I have personally confused them w/ringtails as well. I differentiate between skunk species by the length of the claw marks. Spotted’s tend to be shorter than striped skunks.I also look for pad segmentation. Striped skunks have a flat pad whereas spotteds have segmentation. In really good substrate, you can clearly see a heart shape between toes 2 & 4 in the fronts. Spotteds also have 2 posterior pads that will often show. In striped skunks, the front may register the carpal pad, especially in a muddy substrate. Additionally, the striped skunk hind pad is flat and sometimes will show a line or crease across, especially when the full heal is registering. Another feature to look for is gait. Spotted skunks are more acrobatic than the striped skunks and move around in a bound everywhere and stripes lope or overstep walk. Spotteds are generally found in rocky terrain and are overall less common than striped skunks. On the Channel Islands, they are the only skunk species, so it makes identifying the tracks that much easier. As I mentioned, I have also confused spotted skunk tracks with ringtail; very similar in size. My key differentiation there is pad segmentation and presence of claws for the skunk and no segmentation or claws for the ringtail.”
Here are a few sketches from Mark Elbroch’s Mammal Tracks & Sign book:
And, you can learn more about these fascinating and adorable little creatures by clicking on this link: https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/spotted-skunk.htm
Saturday, 30 May 2020
Our question today comes from our Ngala Training Camp in the Greater Kruger area of the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Who’s nest? In addition to an identification, can you tell us something about it, behaviourally or structurally?
A red-headed weaver nest constructed of petioles, photo by one of our FGASA students (please tell me if it’s yours and I will credit you).
Whoa, this one is cool and got quite a few responses!
This is the nest of a red-headed weaver, which is a bird. Many participants got the species, and even said something cool about the nest. Ross Marcel Gariepy (South Africa) came closest to a full answer, with “Red Headed weaver? To be honest I’m not 100% sure what it’s made from, but I’m going to say with twigs and possible leaflets from Marula trees, very flexible, so probably easier to weave.”
Nicholas Knott-Craig (South Africa) observed the closest contender, “To me it looks like a spectacled weaver nest rather than red-headed? Just looks a little neat for red headed weaver. Less pieces sticking out.”
Spectacled weavers make a very similar nest, but they weave it from grasses.
Red-headed weavers don’t use twigs to weave their nest, they use the petioles (a mid-rib type of structure) of compound leaves! We have personally watched them strip the leaflets off weeping wattle leaves, and weeping Boer bean, but they probably use other species, as well. Makes sense, right? A twig would probably be too stiff to weave, so why not use the flexible petiole of leaves?
Sandra Hubbard (Johannesburg, South Africa) gave us the reason for the long entrance tunnel, “Red headed weaver… tunnel to keep snakes out of the nest.” Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, that’s Lee’s mom, so she ought to know!
Here’s a few screenshots of the related photos from Lee Gutteridge’s newly published Birds of Southern Africa and Their Tracks and Signs:
Shout outs to our other contributors who only mentioned part of the answer: Robert Hendrix (Idaho, USA), Catherine Albertson (USA), Peter Walker-Munro (South Africa), Mark Apgar (Connecticut, USA), Juan Pinto (Master Tracker, Royal Malewane, South Africa), osekimaasaimaracamp (Oseki Maasai Mara Camp, Kenya), and Justene Tedder (KwaZulu-Natal).
Well done to all!
Sunday, 31 May 2020
Our question today comes from our Ngala Training Camp in the Greater Kruger area of the Republic of South Africa (RSA). What are these birds and what is their significance in a tree like this to a tracker?
Vultures sitting in a tree waiting for lions to leave their kill in South Africa, photo by one of our FGASA students (please tell me if it’s yours and I will credit you).
If you read last week’s #TrackerTuesday newsletter, and recall the discussion on “Animal Communication” for the photo of the red-billed oxpecker, you would have read, “Soaring-dynamics in birds-of-prey and scavenger-birds can give away the presence of the kills of predators. First arrivals to a kill site are bateleurs and tawny eagles, which can see from great heights. Their presence is noted by different species of vultures, who then arrive in great numbers, dropping from the sky. If these birds remain perched in nearby trees, it’s likely that the predator(s) are still feeding on the kill, whereas if the birds are dropping all the way to the ground, the predator has left the kill and this allows the birds to come in and feed.”
So, what I was looking for, was that these are vultures ( a few different kinds, as noted by our participants below), and that they are waiting for a predator to leave a kill. As a tracker, I would not walk into this area, because the vultures are all perched, and not dropping to the ground to feed.
David Kennedy notes, “If I saw those in a tree (different types of vulture) I would be thinking there was a kill nearby, so would be on alert for predators! Lovely to see vultures, they are under so much threat sadly. People don’t realize what a vital role they play, the really sad part is the change in places where they used to be revered.”
David’s comment reminded me of a recent event in the African country of Guinea-Bissau, where an estimated 2000 vultures were poisoned for “traditional medicines”. To read more, clink on the link below:
Mike Watling (California, USA) added, “Is this a mixed group of vultures including White-backed vultures? I see some are buffy-brown w/a dark gray face, but there are a couple w/a red face/beak. Anyway, a group of roosting vultures is known as a committee. So, this committee’s importance to trackers is that will roost near food sources thus alerting that there may be predators close by.”
I did not know that, about the “committee of vultures”, thanks, Mike.
Someone from Oseki Maasai Mara Camp (osekimaasaimaracamp, Kenya) said, “White backed vulture. Their significance to trackers is that when they circle high above the ground (continuing to fly in circles) that they might have encountered a (fresh) carcass or kill?”
Yes, a big “wheel” of vultures circling overhead, also called a “kettle” indicates a kill. Remember that vultures often fly together on thermal drafts and currents, so it’s only when you see a huge wheel, with vultures flying in from all over, that it indicates a kill. Then, they won’t come all the way to the ground until the predator is done.
Justene Tedder (KwaZulu-Natal) also said, “Vultures – white headed, white backed and maybe even a hooded. There is likely a carcass close by – so a tracker would be on alert for a predator possibility.”
Monday, 1 June 2020
Our question today comes from the winter in southeastern Connecticut, USA, on a rare snowy day near the coast. Who’s tracks and sign? In addition to an identification, can you tell us something about it, behaviorally? Feel free to guess, but your answer should include your reasoning behind how you know. Bonus kudos if you can guess who walked off on that fallen log.
A white-tailed deer bed, and a bobcat walking on a fallen log in the USA, photo by Kersey Lawrence
This was one of my favorite trails from last January. I was following a bobcat, which went into one of the many deciduous swamps in Connecticut. The cover became thick, and I could not see far ahead, so I slowed way down and stopped frequently to listen and use my senses. I was hopping from one “island” to another when I was busted by 4 snorting deer, who took off at a run. Knowing that they would circle to get a better scent from me, I headed across their trail to head them off. I walked directly to this bed, still warm, with deer tracks heading out of it, and my bobcat, too, across a fallen log (one of their favorite places to walk). It was winter, and even though winters in Connecticut aren’t that cold, and the snow wasn’t that deep, I decided to let the deer go, and continued trailing the bobcat.
Thanks to Mark Apgar (Connecticut, USA), Justene Tedder (KwaZulu-Natal), and Mike Watling (California, USA) for your answers.
Bren White (wildlifetracks, Maine, USA), also ended up at “Bobcat and a deer, interesting question (what direction was the deer facing?). I’m not confident – legs towards log, face towards camera?”
I think he’s right about the direction, especially if we compare to the photo in Mark Elbroch’s Mammal Tracks and Sign, below. We can see the curve of the back on the left, and the shallower snow towards the bottom of the photo, where the impression of the deer’s body comes to a point. The back end (top of the bed in the photo) is wider, and I think we can see suggestions of the legs to the right. If I remember correctly, the bed was on a slight hill, too, overlooking the interior of the swamp, and I think it would have been uncomfortable for the animal to lay with it’s back on the downhill side.
Thanks to everyone who participated. Let’s keep learning together! If you have photos (with an explanation that you’d like to contribute), please contact me at kersey@originalwisdom.com – your contributions will be credited to you.
HEADS UP! Even though we aren’t out of the proverbial “woods” yet with this coronavirus pandemic, I need to start transitioning away from a #DAILYTRACKINGCHALLENGE. While I’ve enjoyed the interaction and the learning very much, it takes a lot of time to do this, and is difficult to do from the bush with limited wifi. Therefore, in mid-June, after Week 10, we will be transitioning to a one-question-a-week format, on #TrackerTuesdays, and the answers will be published on the first Tuesday of every month in our Newsletter.
#trackingisoriginalwisdom, #natureguidetraining, #cybertracker, #trackercertification, #trackermentoring, #alwaystracking, #environmentaleducation, #ecologicalliteracy, #ecologicalintelligence #wildlifetracking, #animaltracking, #tracksandsigns, #systemsthinking, #ecology, #nature, #science, #conservation, #sustainability, #resilience, #adaptation #thinkinglikeamountain #weareallconnected #BeMoreNeedLess #trackinginafrica #greaterkruger
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