Traces of winter birds in the snow. Practical classification of animal footprints. Traces of a hare in the snow, photo
/ Animal tracks. Field identifier
This manual allows you to determine from photographs and drawings in winter time traces of the most common animals on the peninsula. In addition, photographs of traces of birds of the grouse family - partridge and capercaillie are given. Designed for a wide range of nature lovers, employees of natural parks and reserves, schoolchildren, students
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Kamchatka brown bear
Ursus arctos piscator Pucheran, 1855 (Kamchatka brown bear)
Easily recognizable footprints. Depending on the speed, the pattern of the chain of tracks may be “covered” (hind paws are imprinted over the front ones), if the animal moved slowly, or “overlapped” (hind paws are imprinted in front of the front ones) when moving fast.
The photo shows a bear's footprint in the sand, on the right in deep snow.
East Siberian lynx
Lynx lynx wrangeli Ognev, 1928 (East Siberian lynx)
The trace of the front paw is rounded, up to 9–12 cm long and wide, the hind paw is slightly narrower. Unlike a fox or a wolf, the trace chain is located in a broken line. On dense snow, the hind paw is placed exactly in the footprint of the front. The stride length at a calm pace is 20–30 cm. they are retractable. When moving at a gallop, the traces of four legs approach each other. In the photo - the hind paw of a lynx.
polar Wolf
Canis lupus albus Kerr, 1792 (Polar wolf)
The trail of a wolf looks like a dog's. The main difference is that his two middle fingers are pushed forward so that the rear edge of their prints is located at the level of the front edge of the prints of the extreme fingers. The traces of the hind feet are smaller and narrower than the front ones. With a calm course, the trail chain forms a straight line, while the hind legs exactly fall into the trace of the front ones. This is also characteristic of the movement of the flock, so that the number of animals can be determined only at the corners or at some object of interest to the flock. In the photo - prints of the front (above) and hind paws on dense snow.
Anadyr fox
Vulpes vulpes beringiana (Middendorf, 1875) (Anadyr red fox)
The footprint of a fox is similar to that of a small dog, but narrower and more graceful. Like the wolf, the prints of the middle fingers are strongly advanced forward. The trail chain with a calm step is straight, the prints of the hind paws are superimposed on the front ones (indoor track). The stride length is up to 30 cm. At a small trot, the print of the hind paw partially overlaps the front one, with a wider print, the prints are located separately, but not far from each other. On page 6 - a photo of fox tracks in deep snow and on sand when moving at a calm pace. On page 7 - a drawing of the footprint of the front (left) and hind legs.
Kamchatka sable
Martes zibellina camtschadalica (Birula, 1919) (Kamchatka sable)
Due to the strong pubescence of the paws of the sable from below, its traces are, as a rule, indistinct, blurred. Typically, a track on loose snow consists of a chain of paired tracks, the so-called two-step track (p. 8, photo on the left). On shallow snow, the animal moves with a three- or four-foot (p. 8, photo on the right). When running fast in deep loose snow, the tracks merge into a chain of oblong pits. The footprint is 7–10 cm long and 5–6 cm wide. Below - a photo of a sable track on dense snow (four-spot).
Kamchatka wolverine
Gulo gulo albus (Kerr, 1792) (Kamchatka wolverine)
The footprint is large, it can be confused with the footprint of a lynx or a young bear cub, from which it differs in clear imprints of five fingers and claws. Wolverine has very large feet, which allows her to move through deep snow without falling through. The track is usually straight. Like most mustelids, it prefers to move in a two-foot, three- or four-foot pattern (p. 10). The size of the trace is up to 18 cm long and up to 13 cm wide.
northern river otter
Lutra lutra lutra Linnaeus, 1758 (Northern river otter)
When the otter moves through the snow, a furrow, characteristic of the aquatic mustelids, remains, at the bottom of which covered tracks are imprinted. Sometimes there is a strip drawn by the heavy tail of the beast. The trail is zigzag. On ice, sand, the otter uses a four-figure. The size of the imprint of the front paw is 4–5 cm long and wide, the hind paw is 4–8 cm long and 4–6 cm (occasionally up to 13 cm) wide.
On page 12 on the left is a photo of an otter's track in deep snow, on the right is a trail of two tracks.
northern sea otter
Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus, 1758) (Northern sea otter)
Usually the sea otter most spends time in the water, and if it gets ashore, it prefers rocky shores. However, there are times when powerful ice they simply drive the animals into the rivers, and then their traces can be found not only on the surf, but also in the nearest plantations. The track of the sea otter is very similar to the track of the otter (the same furrow, two beads), but differs in much larger sizes. The track is zigzag. characteristic feature are the prints of the hind flipper paws (in the figure below).
american mink
Mustela vison Schreber, 1777 (American mink)
The trace chain of a mink on loose snow is characterized by the usual for mustelids two-step pattern. On sand or crust three- or four-beam. In deep snow, “broaches” from the hind legs often remain, due to which the chain of tracks looks like a continuous groove 8–10 cm wide. The length of the track is about 3 cm, the hasty step is 14–15 cm, the jump is from 25 to 40 cm.
East Siberian stoat
Mustela erminea kaneii (Baird, 1857) (East Siberian ermine)
Ermine tracks - a reduced copy of sable tracks, oblong, 1.5–2 cm wide. When moving, he uses a two-bead (p. 18, on the right), the length of the jump during a leisurely search move is 30–40 cm. while the jump reaches 41–46 cm (p. 18, left).
Siberian weasel
Mustela nivalis pygmaea J. Allen, 1903 (Siberian least weasel)
Weasel has the smallest traces of all representatives of mustelids and the smallest, the length of the jump is up to 25 cm (unlike the ermine, weasel is short-legged). Due to its low weight, the weasel almost does not fall through even on loose snow. The size of the trace is 1.5 cm long, 1–1.2 cm wide. When moving, he most often uses a two-pointer, at speed he switches to a four-pointer. The trace of a large weasel is similar to the trace of an ermine. They can be distinguished by the nature of the trace chain: the weasel moves in short wavy zigzags, while the ermine makes its characteristic turns at a right angle.
Yakut squirrel
Sciurus vulgaris jacutensis Ognev, 1929 (Yakutian red squirrel)
The squirrel mainly moves through the snow by jumping. The tracks are arranged in pairs, while the hind, longer legs are imprinted in front of the short front ones. The pattern of a group of traces resembles a trapezoid. The size of the imprint of the front paw is 4x2 cm, the size of the hind paw is 6x3.5 cm. The length of the group of imprints is 12 cm.
Gizhigin hare
Lepus timidus gichiganus J. Allen, 1903 (Gizhiga blue hare)
The most easily distinguishable footprint: a pair of larger hindprints in front and two smaller front ones behind, one behind the other. The average size of the imprint of the front paw is 8.5x5 cm, the hind one is 12x8 cm. The length of the jump is 120–170 cm, however, when the animal leaves the pursuit or when frightened, it can reach 220 cm. - burrow. On the left - a trace of the rear pair of legs on dense snow.
Moose buturlina
Alces americana buturlini Chernyavsky et Zheleznov, 1982 (Buturlin's moos)
The largest mammal among the ungulates of Kamchatka. When moving through deep snow, it leaves behind a wide “trench”. The track of an adult bull is on average 15.8x12 cm, the hooves are narrow, pointed, able to move apart widely when walking on soft ground. The prints of the lateral fingers are well distinguishable even on hard ground. The stride length is from 72–75 cm (simple walk) to 70–78 cm (trot) and 187 cm (canter). The litter is brown, large, round in males and elongated, acorn-like in females.
Kamchatka reindeer
Rangifer tarandus phylarchus Hollister, 1912 (Kamchatka reindeer)
It differs from the traces of an elk in deep snow by the smaller size of the “trench”. As a rule, deer prefer open swamps, tundras, wastelands, hoof food from under the snow, keep in herds or large groups, while elk go to thickets, low forests, floodplains, eat branches, bark, always keep in small groups or alone . The imprints of large deer hooves have a characteristic kidney-shaped shape, are strongly rounded, the imprints of low-set and wide-spaced lateral toes are visible behind. The length of the step at a slow pace is 50–82 cm. The litter is small dark “nuts”, pointed on one side.
Kamchatka snow sheep
Ovis nivicola nivicola Eschscholtz, 1829 (Kamchatka snow sheep)
Bighorn sheep tracks can be found mainly in mountainous areas (the lower limit of its habitat ranges from 1000 to 1200 m) and on seaside terraces. In coastal areas (Kronotsky Peninsula, Cape Shipunsky, Cape Nalycheva, etc.), animals often descend to the surf. The track of the male is up to 6–9 cm long, the step is up to 35–40 cm. The track consists of hoof prints, hind hoof prints are usually absent.
voles
Clethrionomys (Vole)
Moving in jumps, they leave holes in the snow, at the bottom of which traces of paws are visible, behind - a dash from the tail (photo below). When running, the trail consists of two continuous rows of prints, reminiscent of a weasel trace in miniature (photo above).
Kamchatka stone capercaillie
Tetrao parvirostris kamtschaticus Kittlitz, 1858 (Kamchatka black-billed capercaillie)
The capercaillie, like the partridge, has a chicken type of traces. The length of paw prints is 10–11 cm, in capercaillie - up to 8 cm. The lateral front fingers are slightly shorter than the average. The back toe leaves an imprint up to 3 cm long from the heel. The track is a straight line. It feeds on buds and twigs of birch trees, berries, needles, so they are more common in forest plantations.
partridges
Lagopus (Ptarmigan)
Traces of partridges can be found in the thickets of willow, alder, along the floodplains, where they feed on buds. The prints of the lateral front fingers are located almost at a right angle relative to each other (chicken type of traces). The step is short, 9–12 cm. The size of the track is 4.5x5–6 cm. On loose deep snow, the track looks like an openwork chain. At the top right - a partridge roosting place, at the bottom - two trace chains on dense snow. Take-off trace (imprints of the bird's wings are clearly visible).
Literature:
- Gudkov V.M. Traces of animals and birds. Encyclopedic reference guide. M., Veche, 2008
- Doleysh K. Traces of animals and birds. M., Agropromizdat, 1987
- Catalog of vertebrates of Kamchatka and adjacent marine areas. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 2000
- Lasukov R. Animals and their traces. M., Forest Country, 2009
- Oshmarin P.G., Pikunov D.G. Footprints in nature. M., Science, 1990
- Pikunov D.G., Mikull D.G. and others. Traces of wild animals of the Far East. Vladivostok, Dalnauka, 2004
- Formozov A.N. Pathfinder Companion. M., Moscow University, 1989
- Ian Sheldon, Tamara Hartson Animal Tracks of Alaska. Lone Pine 1999
PART 1
TRACKS ON THE SNOW TRAIL
TRACES OF ELK, DEER, ROE DEER, MUCK DEER AND BOAR
(moose, reindeer, Caucasian deer, maral and red deer, spotted deer, roe deer, musk deer, wild boar, turs and chamois)
Elk
About 60 years ago, this large ungulate was close to complete destruction, but careful protection has yielded remarkable results - now the elk has become one of the common and numerous animals of the country's forest belt. Even in such a densely populated industrial area as Moscow, there are several thousand elks. From big forest areas moose began to settle to the south and now often appear in the fields and in the copses of the Ryazan, Oryol, Saratov, Orenburg and other regions; from Western Siberia they make their way to the forest-steppe and steppe of Kazakhstan. In a number of regions, moose have become so numerous that in some places they destroy young pine trees in plantations and interfere with the regeneration of forests in burnt areas and clearings.
In many areas, rationed elk hunting is now allowed (on special orders - licenses); in the reserves, work is underway to domesticate this valuable animal and study its biology.
It is enough to drive away from Moscow for 40-50 km to get to the lands where there are already many traces of moose. Moose themselves often run into summer cottages and even to the outskirts of Moscow.
Rice. 74. Imprint of the right pair of legs of a female elk (strong mind)
The back foot completely covered the footprint of the front foot. Kostroma region
The sharp hooves of a heavy tall elk leave noticeable traces not only in winter, but also along the black trope. They are considerably larger than the footprints of a domestic cow; the elk's stride is much longer. Like all ungulates, male moose are larger than females, their hoof prints are less sharp, more rounded than the oblong traces of moose. On the places of winter grazing and rest, the elk leaves large heaps of droppings - dozens of brownish-brown large hard "nuts". These heaps are stored for a long time, and often in summer months on them, you can establish the places of winter camps or roaming elk. If the hoof prints in deep snow are not clear enough, the sex of the animal is determined by the shape of the nuts: in the male they are almost round, in the female they are elongated, resembling an acorn.
Rice. 75. Track of a bull elk (above) and a cow elk (below)
1 - at a slow pace, 2 - at a trot, 3 - at a gallop
Moose do not form large herds and usually keep in groups of 3-5, less often 8-10 heads. AT summer time they feed on succulent herbaceous plants (willow-herb, meadowsweet, horsetail, bear's pipe and some other umbrella plants) and pluck leaves from young trees and shrubs; in winter they feed mainly on branches and, to a lesser extent, on the bark of hardwoods (aspens, willows, elms, etc.).
O.I. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky published a very interesting article about the biology of moose in the Kola Peninsula. Almost all of his observations were collected by the method of tracking with a careful study of many diurnal transitions of elks. We use some of the conclusions of this work that are relevant to tracking.
When grazing in autumn, the elk makes quite large transitions (on average, 5-6 km per day). In winter, with deep snow, and especially with the appearance of crust, the mobility of the elk is reduced. On the Kola Peninsula in March with a snow depth of 65-70 cm daily course moose only 0.7-0.9 km. Most of the day the elk lies on the snow, chewing its cud; the number of beds is from 4 to 10 per day (less in autumn, more in spring); calves lie down to rest more often than adults.
Settling down for a rest, the elk does not hoof the snow at all, but simply crushes it with the weight of its body, while the roe deer and deer clear the hay to the ground or forest floor, often choosing places under coniferous trees where the snow cover is especially thin.
In winter, an adult elk eats about 7-9 kg of branch food per day, preferring the shoots of willow, mountain ash, aspen, but does not avoid conifers either. So, he willingly eats, along with needles, thin branches and tops of pine, fir, juniper. The elk scrapes off the bark from large trees with the incisors of the lower jaw, leaving rather wide grooves on the trunk - traces of chisel-shaped teeth. He uses this food from autumn to spring, but with a relatively warm weather. (The bark, strongly hardened in the cold, does not lend itself well to his teeth.)
Rice. 76. Litter of an elk: on the left - male, on the right - females (e.v.)
In early spring, when sap flow begins at the trees and the bark easily lags behind, the elk peels it off in whole shreds, and gnaws the bark below and, grabbing it, pulls it up. Bark gnaws made by this tall animal are usually located at a height of 1 to 2.5-3 m above ground level. Traces of small damages on the trunks of aspens, mountain ash, willows, elms and other trees gradually disappear, but remain for many years. Damaged areas on the trunks of fir trees are covered with resin and seem to heal, but even large trees break in the wind precisely in these gnawed places. Some trees with ring-shaped bark dry out. Moose willingly feed on the bark of fallen trees.
Sometimes in autumn, moose make their way to thorny paths to cutting areas, where there are a lot of felled aspens. The summer paths of moose are also clearly visible, connecting overgrown burnt areas and glades - their grazing places in the forest - with watering places: streams, rivers and lakes.
Rice. 77. Flowering top of willow-tea eaten by elk (d.)
Moose often graze along the shores of lakes and swamps in spring and summer, eating young greens and flowers of willows, marigold, sedge, watch, etc. Not content with this food, they go into the water and take out the fleshy rhizomes of capsules, urut and other aquatic plants. On spring pastures, next to the large sharp hoof marks of the female, it is sometimes possible to notice small traces of one or two recently born calves.
When feeding with branches in winter, an elk breaks trees with fragile wood or heavily frozen trunks of buckthorn, aspen, pine, fir, etc. It bends down small trees, capturing them with its mouth, larger oppression and brings down, advancing with its chest and passing them between the front legs. It is not difficult for an elk to bend and hold a tree with the weight of its huge body, but sharp branches scratch its chest - the elk often walks in sores and abrasions in winter. During the winter settled life even a small herd of moose destroys many shoots and branches, breaks and damages hundreds of young trees. Even after several years, it is still easy to recognize the winter elk camp in the forest - there are so many broken, gnawed and emaciated trees without tops. If there are no traces on the snow, then by the freshness of the breaks in the trunks and wood on the gnawed trees, one can approximately judge the time when the moose passed or “stood”. Thin branches of elk and deer are broken and torn off, since the front teeth - incisors - they have only on the lower jaw. The kink of the end of the branch used by them differs from that “cut off” by the sharp teeth of hares.
Rice. 78. Young pine, broken and partly eaten by elk
Kharovsky district, Vologda region, November
In areas where the maximum snow depth during the winter rarely exceeds 45-50 cm, moose live almost settled, changing seasonally only places of grazing and rest. Where the height of the snow cover reaches an average of 65-70 cm or more, moose roam twice a year - in autumn and spring, spending the winter in conditions of a little-snow strip of forests, sometimes 200-300 km from their summer quarters. So, on the right bank of the Irtysh, in the basin of the Demyanka River, they roam from north to south, and, according to the observations of L. G. Kaplanov, in autumn they cover about 10-15 km per day, sometimes up to 30 km. Significant elk migrations also take place on the western slope of the Middle Urals. In the area of the Pechoro-Ilychsky Reserve, moose migrate in two directions: from north to south and from west to east. The first group spends the winter in pine forests subzones of the middle and southern taiga, where abundant pine-birch undergrowth provides them with food throughout the winter; the second - winter in spruce-fir forests mountain forests, where they feed on branches of fir and mountain ash, despite the deep, by the end of winter, almost two meters of snow.
Rice. 79. Rowan shoots torn off by an elk (left) and oak shoots cut by a white hare (d.)
Mordovian ASSR
Autumn migration usually begins when the first powder falls, even before freezing, spring - when snow settles and the crust melts, which greatly impedes the movement of all ungulates. In places of winter camps, moose shed their antlers: old males in December - January, young bulls - at the end of February, in March. An elk horn that has lain in the forest for a long time is usually badly gnawed by small animals. The lack of some salts in the plant foods of the northern forest makes the horn an attractive mineral food for hares, squirrels, voles and lemmings. According to the width of the grooves made by the incisors of rodents, one can approximately judge the types of animals that use this food.
New antlers grow during the summer; as soon as they harden, the bulls begin to peel off their "shirt" - the skin that covered the horns during the growth period. On the Kola Peninsula, according to Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, moose "clean their antlers" from late August to mid-September. During this period, "the elk most often scrapes and breaks with its horns young pines (up to 10 cm in diameter), fir trees, birches and junipers." However, most of the trees and bushes twisted or broken by horns are damaged not during the cleaning of the horns from the shirt, but later, during the roar (i.e., the mating season). The elk continues to peel branches and bark from young trees with its antlers even in winter until the antlers fall off. The elk rut period falls on September - early October; at this time, each male keeps with one female, and often her calves remain near her. Sometimes the bull drives them away, but they rejoin their mother at the end of the rut and spend the winter together. A pair of moose spends the rutting period in one relatively small area. It is easily recognizable by the presence of bushes broken by horns and by holes in the ground (up to 80 cm in diameter and 25-30 cm deep), knocked out by the bull's front hooves at the place where the female urinated. The roaring elk after the female leaves its "footprints" in this pothole, which for quite a long time retain a sharp smell, reminiscent of the smell of a beaver stream. Such kopankas also appear after snow falls; according to them, one can judge not only the places, but also the timing of the elk rut.
Thus, throughout the year, the elk leaves heterogeneous and clearly visible traces, by which, step by step, you can learn about all the changes in his seasonal life, about his short and long movements and changing environmental requirements.
Reindeer
Much rarer than elk, and on a smaller area of the European part of the USSR, wild reindeer are found. But just 100 years ago, in the former Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, herds of grazing savage deer blew up the snow so much that it was impossible to ski after them. Now they only occasionally run into the Kirov region, more often meeting on the Kola Peninsula, in the north of the Urals, in the tundra, taiga and mountains of Siberia.
If the tracker is lucky enough to come across the tracks of reindeer in the forest, he will immediately distinguish them by the following features: in winter, the elk prefers to stay in thickets of low forests, the reindeer more readily goes to open swamps, mountain tundra and wastelands; the elk eats branches, the deer hoofs the snow, makes large digs, feeding on reindeer moss, or wanders in the conifer, breaking off shreds of bearded lichen hanging on the trunks and branches of fallen trees; the elk always keeps in small groups, the reindeer grazes and roams in herds of several tens or even hundreds of heads.
Hoofprints and droppings of a domesticated reindeer completely similar to the tracks of a savage deer. Only after following a long distance, studying the features of the "handwriting", it is possible to distinguish the traces of a more cautious and mobile wild deer from the traces of domestic herds, and even then without much confidence in the accuracy of the determination.
Rice. 80. Reindeer footprints (d.)
Kola Peninsula, June
But from the traces of other animals close in size, the traces of the reindeer are easily distinguished. Its large (medium) hoof prints are kidney-shaped and strongly rounded; on swampy soil or soft snow, they are widely spaced. The lateral fingers are widely spaced and sit so low that they constantly touch the ground, leaving imprints of sharp hooves. The length of the step at a slow pace is 50-70 cm.
Caucasian deer, maral and wapiti
In the mountain forests of a significant part of the Caucasus and in the impassable reeds of Dagestan, the most beautiful of the ungulates, the Caucasian red deer, is found.
Another form of deer has been preserved in small numbers in the forests of the eastern part of the Crimea. There are also protected European deer in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Voronezh, Khopersky and other reserves. The deer inhabiting the mountains of Central Asia and the southern part of Siberia - the deer and red deer - are also only subspecies (geographical races) of one widespread species.
Rice. 81. On the left - winter reindeer droppings (Dikson Island),
on the right - wapiti (Ussuri taiga) (e.v.)
Cautious, shy Caucasian deer keeps in summer in deserted places on the border of forest and alpine meadows, in winter it descends much lower. In places covered with fine snow, deer gather acorns, beech nuts, and nibble grass. If the snow is deep, they eat young shoots, lichens, buds, gnaw bark, pluck green, unfallen blackberry leaves. Young deer and lankas (females) form common herds and go to the lower mountain belts for the winter; old males roam alone and remain in dark coniferous forests, where the snow depth reaches 80-100 cm or more.
By the end of winter or at the beginning of spring, deer shed their antlers. Like moose, old people are freed from antlers earlier than young ones. The deer sheds its antlers in approximately the same place. First, one horn breaks off, then after a while the other. It is noticed that the large, heavy horns of large males lie closer to each other on the trail than small ones. This is explained as follows: the remaining heavy horn strongly tilts its head to one side, disturbs the beast, and the deer hurries to get rid of it.
Rice. 82. Footprint of a female Caucasian deer (e.v.)
Caucasian Reserve, September
The traces of the Asian representatives of this group are similar to the traces of the Caucasian deer: the almost exterminated Tugai deer, or hangul, found here and there along the tugai in the river valleys of Central Asia; deer, inhabiting mainly the mountain taiga of southern Siberia (found from the Tien Shan to Baikal inclusive); as well as red deer living in the forests of Transbaikalia and the southern half of the Far East Territory. The hoof prints of these animals are similar to those of their common neighbor, the wild boar. But in the wild boar, the longer lateral fingers leave prints more often, and the two middle fingers move apart more widely than in the deer. According to the traces of the body on the grass, bushes and trees (the wild boar is much lower than the deer), it is often possible to verify the definition made by hoof prints by the litter.
Rice. 83. Traces of a deer on the go: on the left - females, on the right - male
The latter has a gap between the right and left prints
(see dotted line) much wider than female
Deer droppings, like that of an elk, are characteristic "nuts", usually lying in a large pile. They are smaller than moose, but larger than those of roe deer. The tracks of the bull deer, especially the prints of the hind legs, are larger, blunter and more rounded than those of the female, and the prints of the hooves are more tightly compressed. In addition, the traces of the right and left pairs of extremities of the bull are moved much further away from the median longitudinal line of the trace.
Rice. 84. Litter of female Caucasian deer
above - winter, below - spring, when switching to eating juicy green food. Caucasian Reserve
Deer bites on the bark of elms, aspens, willows have a different character, depending on what time of the year the deer fed. Winter injuries have the appearance of furrows left as if by a semicircular chisel, narrower than those of an elk; at this time, the bark is firmly connected with the wood and the deer scrapes it off with their incisors. During the movement of juices, the bark is easily peeled off from the tree in whole ribbons and patches. The deer feeds on it, leaving almost no traces of teeth - these are summer and spring injuries.
There are springs and springs, the water of which contains a slightly increased percentage of salts. The soil near such mineral springs is saturated with salts. In spring and summer, all ungulates willingly visit these salt licks. Deer gnaw on brackish soil, dig deep holes in it, drink water, lick stones lying in the water, sometimes even gnaw on crumbling pieces. rocks. Thorny paths and many traces of animals of different ages and sex lead to salt licks.
Autumn comes mating season and deer with a trumpet roar walk through the forest, the length of the tracks noticeably increases. At the same time, traces of meetings and fights of males can be seen. Where the bulls fought, the moss was uprooted and scattered in all directions, the earth was blown up and bare. Occasionally, pieces of broken antler sprouts and traces of blood on the trampled earth are found at the site of the fight. Sometimes the males are so intertwined with their horns that they cannot disperse, and the fight ends with the death of both rivals from hunger.
When snow falls, Caucasian and Siberian deer migrate to winter camps. In some areas, these are short transitions from one slope of the ridge to another or from one type of forest to the next. But sometimes deer have to walk many tens of kilometers. Then they move in small groups along the same long-term paths. Where there are many deer, for example, in the Primorsky Territory, their paths are very numerous and represent one of the typical features of a wild, sparsely inhabited area. L. G. Kaplanov wrote:
"They exist for many years, are constantly being renewed and run through the valleys along the rivers and springs, along the ridges and through the mountain folds, serving as routes of movement for all kinds of animals in the summer." Such deer trails often have to be used during travel and when research work in taiga. "If it were not for the numerous animal trails that cross the Sikhote-Alin taiga in all directions, we would not be able to complete even half of our journeys," wrote the well-known explorer of this region V. K. Arseniev.
Feeding mainly on tree branches in winter, deer leave even more noticeable traces of their stay at the place of mass winter grazing than do elk. This is due to the fact that the deer is a herd animal; females and young are kept in large groups. Noticeable damage to forest plantations was noted in the Crimean and Voronezh reserves; traces of the long-term impact of red deer grazing on the vegetation of the Sikhote-Alin are described by L. G. Kaplanov. Here, the influence of numerous deer primarily affects their favorite, main forage species - velvet tree, aralia - and to a lesser extent on others.
In the Far Eastern taiga, the influence of red deer on the life of the forest is not significant. economic importance, especially since the deer provides valuable antlers, meat, skins and to some extent pays for the damage caused to forest plantations.
In the forestry enterprises of the European part of the USSR, where much attention is paid to the reforestation of clear-cut areas, forest nurseries are created and valuable species are being acclimatized, it is necessary to protect areas of the young forest from elk and deer and not allow too large an increase in the number of these animals.
Dappled deer
This small, very beautiful deer has survived with us in small groups only in the forests of Primorsky Krai, to the north to Bolshaya Ussurka. But over the past 30-40 years, sika deer have been settled in a number of reserves in the European part of the USSR and in some regions of Siberia. His antlers - young horns - are used as remedy and are valued higher than deer and red deer antlers.
Spotted deer tracks are middle in size between those of roe deer and wapiti.
Rice. 85. Hoof print and sika deer droppings
Left - winter, right - spring during the transition
for succulent green fodder (e.v.). Primorye, June
The spotted deer usually grazes on forest lawns and glades, where it eats herbaceous plants, sometimes even such inedible for livestock as hellebore and lily of the valley. It willingly feeds on acorns and other forest fruits, plucks buds and soft leaves of trees. Taking out the branches while standing on its hind legs, it easily rises and stretches to its full length.
An inexperienced tracker might think that some very tall animal fed here. As a rule, spotted deer live sedentary, adhering to one small area. In summer, these are dense thickets of sivers - the northern slopes of the hills, in winter, little snowy sunbaths - slopes facing south and overgrown with black forest.
Roe
A wild goat, a roe deer, leads a lifestyle similar to deer, which is called "guran" in Transbaikalia, and "ilik" in Kazakhstan. Its traces - a miniature copy of deer - are most often found in light, sparse forests, in glades, in overgrown burnt areas, in tugai and mountain shrubs. Of our small deer, the roe deer is the most widely distributed and in some places very numerous species. It is found in the western strip of the European part of the USSR (from Ukraine, Belarus and Leningrad region east to Moscow, Yaroslavl and Voronezh region), in the Crimea, in the Caucasus, in the Middle and Southern Urals, in the forest-steppe of Kazakhstan and mountain forests of a number of ridges of Central Asia, in the southern strip of the taiga of Siberia. Roe deer of Siberia, and especially the Urals, are much larger than those living in the European part of the USSR and in Central Asia, which is reflected in the size of the tracks, the length of the jumps, etc.
Rice. 86. Traces of the right pair of legs of a male roe deer during slow movement (e.v.)
Primorye, June
The roe deer inhabits extensive continuous forests and small forest clefts, through which it penetrates far into the steppe region. In summer, its traces are found even in the reed beds of large lakes in Northern Kazakhstan, and in the southern part of this republic, roe deer in in large numbers found in tugai and reed beds of the lower reaches of the Ili River, surrounded by the sands of a vast desert.
The most densely populated by roe deer is the southern strip of Siberia from the coast Sea of Japan to Altai in the west, Middle, Southern Urals and mountains of Central Asia. In summer, roe deer lie down to rest in dense thickets of young deciduous and coniferous species, in shrubs and dense forb cover of glades, in Ivan-tea and large ferns.
With regard to food, the roe deer is unpretentious and eats many herbaceous plants, leaves of trees and shrubs, and their fruits. Unlike elk and deer, branch food even in winter plays a relatively small role in its nutrition; it more readily nibbles dry grass on blowouts and sun-baked areas (areas devoid of snow), eats hay from haystacks, hoofs fallen aspen leaves from under the snow, etc. Roe deer go to salt licks for most of the year.
Rice. 87. Footprint of an adult male Siberian roe deer during fast jumps
On the run, the hooves are strong - they move apart and, except for the two middle fingers
short lateral (e.v.) rest on the ground.
Kustanai region, Kazakhstan, July
In the places of their summering and wintering, the uterus with young and single males stay more or less sedentary, for a long time occupying a limited area with a watering place, pasture and dense thickets of hay. Daily transitions under certain conditions are quite large.
For example, here is a description of the transition of a family of roe deer along the first powder in the Middle Urals. Having risen from the beds, on the top of a small hill with dense pine young growth, they made a big circle, returned there and lay down not far from their former place of rest. These animals traveled about 14 km and moved away from their haul, counting in a straight line, by 4.5 km. “Roe deer walked one after another,” wrote S. L. Ushkov, “sometimes they dispersed, walked around individual trees, bushes, converged again. On the go, without stopping, they bit the tops of birches, aspens and pines. on two occasions they crossed a clean clearing in an open place ... "
The rut of roe deer is in August - September. During this period, males become more mobile, run a lot in search of females and often fight with rivals. Their fresh footprints appear on the paths where for a long time did not meet at all.
In the northern part of the roe deer distribution area and in the mountains with snowy winters, these animals late autumn and partly in winter they migrate until spring from their summering grounds to areas more favorable for wintering - little snow, better protected from cold winds, etc. In some areas, during these seasonal migrations, roe deer, having huddled in herds of 10-20 heads, leave for tens of kilometers . With constant seasonal migrations, they usually follow their own special paths and paths that have existed for many decades. In the old days, during large migrations and especially at river crossings (for example, on the Amur, Ussuri), thousands of roe deer became the prey of hunters. Sometimes large winter movements of roe deer are caused by heavy snowfalls. The permanent wintering grounds of these ungulates, covered with deep snow, become unsuitable for them, and the animals migrate. At the same time, even herds are evicted to new places, in ordinary years living settled. Winter is the most difficult period in the life of many ungulates. At this time, the roe deer everywhere chooses the least snowy forest plantations or sunburns. Even in the Caucasus and Crimea, roe deer are more likely to stay in the winter on "warmths".
For rest, these animals dig a lair in the snow to the ground. They always lie down with their chest and stomach down, with their legs tucked in. Therefore, their beds do not have the correct shape and are so small that they do not seem to correspond to the growth of the animal. The pursued roe deer very skillfully confuse their trail: they describe circles, returning several times to their original path, make loops and jump to the side. The horns are shed in old goats in November, and in young goats in December.
Rice. 88. Left - winter droppings of Siberian roe deer, right - musk deer
(a little mind). Primorye
musk deer
The footprint of the musk deer, which lives in our mountainous regions of southern and eastern Siberia, is smaller than that of other small ungulates, and is similar not so much to the trace of deer related to it, but to the trace of mountain antelopes. The hooves of the musk deer are elongated and sharp, the footprint is clear. Since its lateral hooves - spurs - are sharp and long, they also give distinct prints on snow and soft ground.
Her fingers are able to move apart greatly, due to which the supporting surface of the legs increases. This makes it easier for the musk deer to move on loose forest snow.
Rice. 89. On the left - hoof prints of a female musk deer when moving slowly, on the right - when jumping uphill (e. v.). Altai Reserve
(based on a sketch by F.D. Shaposhnikov)
On fast jumps, the musk deer throws strong hind legs far behind the front ones; at the same time, the location of the group of prints resembles the tracks of a hare. Small dark "nuts", musk deer droppings, lying in heaps among rocks and stones, resemble spilled black sunflower seeds.
Rice. 90. Traces of musk deer on jumps
Musk deer is a settled animal; it stays in the rocky areas of the taiga throughout the year; in winter, with deep snow, it paves thorny paths along the eaves of rocks and cliffs. Its main winter food is tree lichens, coniferous fir legs, etc. Its way of life is little studied and deserves close attention of trackers.
Boar
Wild pigs get along better than other ungulates in the neighborhood with a person. Despite the long-standing persecution, in the forests of Belarus, in the Caucasus, in Central Asia, in the south of Kazakhstan and Siberia - wherever there are suitable conditions, there are still a lot of these animals. Their thorny paths crossed all the boundless thickets of reeds of the Caspian coast, the deltas of the Kuban and Volga rivers, the lower reaches of the Amu Darya, Syr Darya and a number of other regions. There are many wild boars in mountain forests, especially in Primorsky Krai. Among the impenetrable thickets and thickets one can see their countless traces and sometimes.
Rice. 91. Footprints of a female wild pig (d.)
Caspian coast, Dagestan, June
Old pigs, accompanied either by small piglets or by one or two year old gilts, join other families. Having formed herds of several dozen heads, they wander through the forests, looking for places richest in acorns, chestnuts, hazelnuts, beech or pine nuts. In summer, they dig up bulbs, roots, earthworms, small rodents and plow mountain meadows, forest clearings, etc. with their snouts. In winter, depending on the weather and the depth of snow, herds of pigs either descend into the lowlands or rise again into the mountains. In coastal areas, they dig for most of the year sweet rhizomes and tender reed shoots, mealy rhizomes of cattail, and on small places reservoirs collect water chestnuts and shells. With luck, wild boars even catch fish, looking for drying up, very shallow lakes and channels, or visit kots, vershes and other unauthorized tools of fishermen. From reed and forest "strings" almost impregnable for the hunter, wild boars raid the fields - they destroy wheat, corn, melons, potatoes, etc.
Rice. 92. Pieces of large whitish rhizomes of cattail, dug up by a wild boar
(strong mind). Volga Delta
If you meet a single large footprint of a wild boar in summer, it means that either an old male billhook has passed, or a younger one, whose fangs have not yet fully advanced from behind the lips. Males lead a hermitic way of life for most of the year and are known by hunters under the name "odintsov". Winter tracks of wild boars are deep; the undersized animal drags its legs strongly and often plows a continuous furrow in the snow.
Pigs usually spend the long winter night feeding. In those places where they are little pursued, they are not averse to wandering during the day. For rest, pigs rake a fallen leaf, weeds or reeds with their feet and snouts, arranging a den with a diameter of 5-6 m, and lie down with the whole herd. Single boars make themselves a smaller bed, but much higher and warmer. In the summer, females, protecting themselves and their piglets from mosquitoes, make a kind of green arbors with a canopy of thick branches in frequent thickets.
Both wild boars and pigs rarely return to the lair where they have already rested once, and more often arrange a new one.
The number of newborn piglets in a litter is 6-10; they are born in April - May, in the south even at the end of March. Before giving birth, the pregnant female separates from the herd with which she spent the winter, and brings the cubs, secluded in a secluded place. The family joins other adult pigs and gilts only after the piglets are strong enough. Although the female carefully protects and very boldly protects the brood, piglets in the first months of life are fairly easy prey for large predators, especially for wolves, leopards, etc. During the first three months of life, at least 20 percent of the offspring die, and by autumn, with each uterus usually no more than two or three piglets remain.
Rice. 93. Traces of a piglet of a wild pig: on the left - at the beginning of summer, on the right - at the end of October (e.v.)
Volga Delta
At the beginning of summer, a family on the way makes a wide path, on which large, deep marks of the uterus are surrounded and entangled in several rows of light tracks of piglets. Lively, fast piglets, chasing each other, often run away from the road, make loops and circles, crossing the trail of an adult female, carefully and carefully choosing the path. In late autumn, next to the trace of the female, only traces of the few surviving and strongly grown piglets stretch; their behavior differs little from that of adult animals. In dense thickets, the family stretches out like a "goose" and makes its way along a narrow path, which is broken by the uterus going ahead. In feeding places, the traces of the brood diverge like a fan, to soon merge again into one stitch at the transition to a new grazing area.
Rice. 94. Footprints of a boar at a slow pace (d.)
In addition to burrows, patches of torn leaf and lairs, wild pigs leave long-lasting traces of bathing places - places where "mud baths" were taken. In the Caucasus, the wild boar bathes almost all year round, but especially often in June, during the summer molt, and in autumn. Already at the end of September, wild boars begin to visit bathing places regularly; in October and especially in November, bathing takes on the character of a mass phenomenon and again becomes more rare in December, with the onset of significant cold weather. In the mountains, the usual places for boar mud baths are oozing springs and small basins with stagnant water, including even potholes with rain puddles on clay mountain roads, etc. Among the reed thickets, deep baths, surrounded by an oval roller of black silt displaced to the surface, are located along shallow waters or semi-dry shores close to the water's edge of a lake, a channel, etc. wild ducks, shepherdesses and swamp hens gather their food - a continuous pattern of bird footprints soon appears on the bathing suit.
Rice. 95. Tracks of a galloping boar (d.)
A single male, stopping to rest and choosing a place to lay, behaves more carefully than a female. Usually he makes a semicircle, lies at the end of such a loop with his head towards the entrance track and "keeps his ear". The female does not make a circle and lies down on a straight track. In warm summer time, wild boars lie down both in glades and in the forest. In the rain and cold weather lone beds in the Caucasus are located only in the forest, more often at the base of the trunk of a dense tree, such as fir, or under uprooted roots. In reeds in such weather, the wild boar settles in dense thickets with a crease - a natural canopy of old fallen stems. A pig with piglets often lies down under the protection of a tree with a large crown, in the thickets of young growth, entangled in hops, clematis and other climbing plants. The brood rests in a tight pile. Large herds, settling down to rest, are divided into groups or families of four to six heads each; these groups lie close to each other, often with their heads in different directions, which makes it easier to observe the possible approach of danger.
Wild pigs make especially large transitions in spring and early summer. Large summer aggregations of wild boars are observed in reed beds in places of mass hatching of migratory locusts, which are tasty food for pigs. Significant migrations are also noted in autumn, they are associated with the different times of ripening of forest fruits, and in late autumn - with the search for productive feeding places and wintering with little snow. Wild boars endure mild winters easily, but in those years when deep snow falls or the soil freezes heavily, they quickly weaken from starvation, become easy prey for wolves, or freeze when they are extremely exhausted.
From November to January - the time of mating of wild boars: the pigs move to more remote places, and the billhooks, approaching the herds of queens, drive away the young. Only a month later, the piglets rejoin their mothers. Where strong boars fought, the ground is dug up and trampled down, spattered with blood and strewn with bristles.
In the last 30-35 years, hunting organizations in many regions of the European part of the RSFSR have been breeding wild pigs in forests and marshy lands. Numerous herds of them roam not only in the middle lane, where there are oak forests and wild boars largely feed on acorns, but also much further north. Now wild boars have settled to the Vologda region, and in some cases reach the south of the Arkhangelsk region. There are many of them in the Kalinin, Yaroslavl and Moscow regions. Here, traces and sometimes these large and strong animals can often be found in the fields and hay meadows. They greatly harm plantings of potatoes and beets, crops of peas and oats. Sometimes hayfields spoil them very much. Sometimes wild boars enter vegetable gardens and even the outskirts of large cities. At present, a reasonable reduction in the number of wild boars is required, especially where there is little natural food and animals largely live off agricultural crops.
Tours and chamois
In the Caucasus, high above the forests, where herds of wild pigs roam, on bright lawns and gravelly screes near eternal snows, you can find traces of other ungulates: mountain goats - tours and chamois.
Rice. 96. Hoof print of a male chamois (d.)
Inhabitants of impregnable heights, they rarely catch the eye. And only with good binoculars you can follow their movement along the rocks and ridges. Already from a distance, through the wide gorges, thorny paths are visible on the places of constant movements of mountain goats. In summer, the aurochs keep especially high, and in winter they are forced to descend closer to the upper border of the forest, where there are less deep snows and more food. At the steep ledges, on the centuries-old paths of the aurochs, fertilized with their droppings, the grass grows higher and more luxuriantly than away from the rocks. The floor of deep caves, located in inaccessible places in the mountains, where aurochs often hide from bad weather, is covered with a thick layer of "nuts", and shreds of faded aurochs fluff are visible in the cracks of the stones.
Rice. 97. Chamois droppings (e.v.)
North Caucasus, November
Chamois, one of the few antelopes found in the mountains, more often than tours, is in the forest and often comes to salt licks, completely covered with traces of roe deer and deer. The hooves of the chamois are very narrow and sharp; traces are easily distinguished from all others. On the high ridges of Central Asia and Siberia, there are several more species of mountain goats and wild sheep, but there is still too little data on their traces.
Questions for independent observations of ungulates
Describe the places where you met traces of different types of ungulates. Were the animals a passageway or did they stay here for a long time? Number of animals, their size, age, sex. What is the size of the area occupied by them, how large are their daily transitions, are there any migrations, depending on the seasons and weather, from one area to another? Where, how and what kind of food do animals get for themselves? Are there signs of a hunger strike?
How do animals relate to the proximity of a person and the traces of his activity? Where and at what time do elk, deer and roe deer lose their antlers? How do they confuse their trail, how do they fight off attacking predators? Draw footprints, food debris, characteristic damage, lairs. After setting up trial plots, count the number of young trees killed by wild ungulates.
Each of us likes to walk in the forest and disassemble the tracks of animals. It's such a fun activity, especially for kids!
Let's think we, adults, are we so good at understanding the tracks of animals?
Probably not.
Many of us have not been out in the forest for a long time and can only distinguish the tracks of a cat from a dog.
Sad, isn't it? I would not want such civilized "savages" who are not familiar with the surrounding nature to grow up among children. Let's study the traces of wild animals together with the kids, and colorful pictures will help us in this.
Game "Guess the tracks"
I want to invite you today to introduce the kids to the traces of wild animals.
This game:
- - develops logical thinking,
- - introduces the child to wild animals,
- - well trains the memory and fine motor skills of the fingers of children.
So, in front of you are the cards themselves - you will need to print them, laminate or paste them with tape, cut them into pieces. Now you can play. Show the baby the footprints of one or another animal, and then show the picture of the animal itself and explain that these are its footprints. After the baby learns well whose particular traces, you can invite him to play. For example, you show him the tracks of wild animals and offer him to choose from two options for animals whose tracks these are, you can gradually add more and more cards until the baby begins to lay out all the cards on his own.
For primary school teachers, kindergarten teachers, such a game is a great opportunity not only to entertain children useful thing but also to teach them new knowledge and skills. Pictures with footprints and animals can be used in nature studies lessons and even build on this homework for kids. Invite the children to draw the footprints of animals on their own. When they bring the pictures to class, have the other children try to guess which animal the footprints are.
Other options for pictures for games
English alphabet with animal tracks. Developing fantasy
There are many animals in the world, and it is very difficult to cover everyone on cards and pictures. When you and the guys have mastered the tracks of the animals proposed in the manual, play the next game. Take pictures of some rare species of animals for children. Try to imagine what their footprints will look like, what kind of paws they have. Various books can help you with this. exotic countries and the surrounding nature.
And now the task for the children: let them try to draw the tracks of the proposed animals.
How would you recognize this beast if it walked on the ground?
This exercise:
- - develops imagination;
- - improves logical thinking;
- - promotes perseverance and attentiveness, because the child needs not only to come up with and justify his choice, but also to draw traces.
You can arrange a competition for children: who will draw the tracks of their animal faster and more correctly (before the start of the competition, pictures of animals are distributed to the children).
If pictures are used in a classroom lesson or theme night, dedicated to the protection nature, the team competition will look great. To do this, you need to lay out pictures with traces on the floor in the classroom. Images of animals (selected in accordance with the footprints) are divided into piles according to the number of teams and distributed to children. Before starting the game, give the guys the opportunity to think carefully, and then note the time. For the specified time period (depending on the number of tasks), children must find traces of their animals and combine the pictures. The team that completes the task the fastest wins. It goes without saying that it is necessary to carefully familiarize the children with the traces of animals in advance, otherwise the competition will not work, or the children will quickly lose interest.
conclusions
So, pictures with animal tracks can be an excellent tool for teaching children to communicate with the natural environment. It will be nice after a series of lessons to consolidate the knowledge gained in practice. Organize a trip to the forest for the children, take a look at what animals and birds leave their traces there.
The zoo can also be a useful object of observation, but the tracks there are much harder to spot. In this case, the trip can only be introductory.
October 27, 2009 | Pathfinder: Reading animal tracks
Traces of animals, i.e., the prints left by them on the snow or mud, as well as on the grass, especially during dew, are of great importance for hunting: according to the traces of animals they find (hunt down) and lay them down, recognize their number, sex, age, and also whether the animal is hurt and even how badly hurt.
Wild animals lead a secretive lifestyle. Thanks to well-developed instinct, hearing and vision, animals and birds notice a person earlier than he does them, and if they do not immediately run away or fly away, then they hide, and their behavior becomes atypical. The traces of their life activity help the observer to unravel the secrets of the life of animals. By this is meant not only the imprints of limbs, but also all the changes that animals make to surrounding nature.
In order to properly use the discovered tracks, you need to know who they belong to, how long ago they were left by the animal, where the animal was heading, as well as how it moved. How to learn to recognize animal tracks? To determine the freshness of the trail, it is necessary to link together the biology of the animal, the state of the weather at the moment and a few hours ago, and other information. For example, in the morning a trace of an elk was found, not powdered with snow that had fallen the day before from the afternoon until the evening. The freshness of the trace is beyond doubt - it is nocturnal.
The freshness of the trace can be determined by touch. In the cold in dry snow, a fresh track does not differ in looseness from the surface of the surrounding snow. After some time, the walls of the trace harden, and the stronger, the lower the temperature, the trace “hardens”. Any other track left by a large animal becomes stiffer over time, and the more time passes since the track was formed, the harder it becomes. Traces of small animals left on the surface of deep snow do not harden. It is important to find out whether the beast has been here since the evening or passed an hour ago. If the trail is old, more than a day old, then it is useless to look for the beast that left it, it is already far away, out of reach. If the trace left is fresh, then the beast may be somewhere nearby. To determine the direction of movement of an animal, one must know the peculiarities of the positioning of the limbs of different animals. Looking closely at a single track of a large animal left in loose deep snow, one can notice the difference between the walls of the track along the path of the animal.
On the one hand they are more gentle, on the other more abruptly. These differences arise because the animals lower their limbs (leg, paw) gently, and take them out of the snow almost vertically upwards. These differences are called: dragging - back wall and dragged out - the front wall of the track. The drag is always longer than the drag, which means that the animal moved in the direction in which the short, that is, steeper walls of the track are directed. When the animal takes out the leg, it presses on the anterior wall, compacting it, while the posterior wall is not deformed. Sometimes, in order to accurately determine the direction of the movement of the animal, it is necessary to rush it, observing the handwriting of the trail.
The gait of the animal, or the gait of its movement, is reduced to two types: slow or moderately fast movement (step, trot, amble) and fast running in successive jumps (gallop, quarry).
Animals with an elongated body and short limbs most often move at a moderate gallop. They are simultaneously repelled by the hind limbs and fall exactly into the imprints of the forelimbs. The legacy with such a gait is paired prints of only the hind limbs (most mustelids).
Sometimes, at a slow gallop, one or both hind paws does not reach the prints of the front paws, and then groups of tracks of three and four prints appear, called three- and four-foot prints. Less commonly, long-bodied and short-legged animals go to the quarry, and then in a jump they put their hind legs in front of their front ones, and therefore the prints of their hind legs are ahead of their front ones (hares, squirrels).
To determine the freshness of the trace, you need to divide the trace with a thin branch. If the trace is easily divided, then it is fresh, if it does not divide, it is old, more than a day old.
Boar footprints on the ground
Wild boar footprints in the snow
Wolf footprint on the ground
Wolf footprint in the snow
Lynx tracks
fox footprints
bear footprints
deer footprints
When moving at a step or trot, the animals rearrange their limbs crosswise: the front right and hind left paws are brought forward, then the other pair. With a slow step, the front limb of the animal touches the ground a little earlier than the rear, and when moving at a trot, the front and rear limbs of opposite sides fall to the ground at the same time.
With a slow step, the prints of the hind paw remain somewhat behind and to the side of the print of the front. With an average step, the animal places its hind foot in the print of the front. At a large trot, the print of the hind foot may be located slightly in front of the front line. Therefore, according to the pattern of prints, one can judge whether the animal moved slowly or quickly. Amble - a movement in which the animal simultaneously moves both right or both left limbs (sometimes horses, bears).
Clear footprints occur only on dense wet snow, on silt and on soft clay. On loose soil or loose snow, the tracks of animals form a series of shapeless pits without claws and fingers.
The footprint of an animal looks different not only in connection with the gaits of the animals, but also in connection with the state of the soil on which the animals move. The trace also changes depending on the hardness or softness of the soil. Ungulates, when moving calmly on solid ground, leave prints of two hooves. These same animals, when running and jumping on soft ground, leave prints of four hooves. Having five toes on their front paws, the otter and beaver leave a four-toed footprint on soft ground. Traces also change with the age of animals. In older animals, the tracks are larger and of a different shape. Piglets rely on two fingers, and their parents on four.
Adult dogs rely on four toes, and their puppies on five. The footprints of males and females also differ, but only experienced trackers can catch the differences. With the change of the seasons of the year, the traces of animals change, since the paws of some of them are overgrown with coarse long hair, which facilitates movement on loose snow (marten, lynx, white hare, fox, etc.).
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Many animals live around us, but most people have seen only stray dogs and cats walking on the street just like that. Wild animals are very cautious and even hiding in the forest it is not always possible to notice them. At forest dwellers good sense of smell and they can smell you for several kilometers. They will not show themselves, because they are afraid of a person. But you can always see animal tracks in the snow, wet ground or sand. Like in a cartoon about Masha and the Bear: "And who went? Bunny?" Now we will reveal to you all the secrets of the footprints.
Animal footprints
The hare has long hind legs, and therefore the footprint of the hind leg is also long. This is when the bunny is not particularly in a hurry. But when he flies away with all his might, the tracks are indistinguishable, only a couple of pits at a jump distance.
The trace of a squirrel is splayed fingers. The footprint of the hind foot is again longer than the front.
The footprint of a deer or roe deer is a hoof print, but not a simple one, but a paired one, because there are 2 hooves on the leg. No wonder deer are called artiodactyls.
The boar is also an artiodactyl. Its track is slightly similar to that of a deer, but wider and shorter.
Weasel's paws are small, but wide, and the footprints are wide.
The badger has similar footprints, but is larger.
See the little dog's footprint? It could be a fox.
And if the tracks are large, then perhaps a gray wolf has been here before you.
And it is quite rare to see the traces of a clubfoot bear.
Now, walking in the winter forest, you can find out what animals live here.