Learn the basics of animal tracking at Rogers Tracking 101 workshop
Learn about the track formula, identifying gait, animal scat, and more at Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center's Tracking 101 workshop from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 14 at the Rogers Environmental Education Center, located at 2721 State Route 80 in Sherburne. To reserve a spot, call Rogers Center at 607-674-4733 or email ellen@friendsofrogers.org. (Photo by Dustin Genter of 5th Dimension Photography)
SHERBURNE — Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center will be hosting a Tracking 101 workshop from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Visitors Center, located at 2721 State Route 80 in Sherburne.
Rogers Center Environmental Educator Ellen Rathbone will teach attendees the fundamentals of animal tracking such as the track formula, gait recognition, scat identification, and more. The workshop is part of Rogers Center’s free programs sponsored by the Otis Thompson Foundation, usually held on the second Saturday of every month.
Tracking 101 is open to attendees ages 10 and up, and pre-registration is required. To reserve a spot, call Rogers Center at 607-674-4733, or email Rathbone at ellen@friendsofrogers.org.
Learning the track formula is integral to animal tracking, said Rathbone, as the formula allows individuals to take bits of separate information from a track and put them together to identify an animal, rather than memorizing what each animal’s track looks like.
“[Track formula] is this weird looking thing that could read something like a lowercase ‘f’ with the number four, an uppercase ‘H’ with the number five, and then a lowercase ‘co’ (f4H5co). And you look at that and you’re like, oh my gosh I have no idea what that means. Well, that’s the track formula for squirrels, and it’s actually the track formula for rodents” Rathbone explained.
“Once you know that the F is the front foot, the H is the hind foot, whichever one is capitalized is the larger foot, and then the numbers represent the number of toes you usually see,” she continued. “So in rodents, their front feet are smaller than their back feet, they have four toes in the front and five in the back, and claws often show. And once you know that, suddenly it’s easy to identify what a track is rather than having to try to memorize what each footprint looks like.”
She said there are many other areas the workshop will cover that can be helpful when tracking animals. Learning to recognize gait — such as walking, trotting, and loping or galloping — can give clues to what an animal might be, as certain animals have what are called “baseline gaits.”
In addition to learning tracking basics, attendees will also put what they learn into practice by identifying animal track photos, and if there is snow at the center, by heading outside to try real-life animal tracking.
“In the event we should actually have snow, you usually do not see the animals feet, so it’s hard to identify what the animal is; All you see are holes in the snow,” said Rathbone. “So when you learn the gaits — and you can do measurements to learn how big the animal was, how big the footprints are — it gives you a good idea of what the animal could be, because animals have certain what they call ‘baseline gaits.’ So certain patterns you know are most likely to be certain animals.”
But Tracking 101 goes beyond just identifying what animal left their mark. Rathbone said one of the most exciting parts of tracking is figuring out the story behind the track. For example, identifying habits and behaviors of coyotes.
“You can tell when the female is in heat, and you can tell where a mating has taken place. You can tell where a fox has pounced in the snow where its nose landed. Did it catch something?” said Rathbone. “Really good trackers, they can go out there and say, ‘this was a female, and she was walking along, and here she looked over her left shoulder, and there is where something else happened.’ And really good trackers can tell all that just by looking at tracks in the snow, and that to me is amazing, and that's one of the ones that I will teach on Saturday.”
Rathbone encourages others to learn the skill of animal tracking, as it can be an eye opener to the wildlife people are around every day, but don’t normally notice.
“I think a lot of times people today, we go outside and they have their earbuds in and they’re just outside and that’s it. But once you start to learn what’s out there and how to read the landscapes, suddenly you’re among friends,” Rathbone said.
“Like, I know these trees: this is a birch, this is a beech, this is a hemlock. I know these plants, I know those birds, I know these animal tracks, so I know there’s squirrels that are here or that a raccoon came through this area here. And so to me it just makes it so that you know your neighborhood, basically,” she added.
Tracking 101 attendees will also be provided a handout to take home that describes all the things learned in the workshop. Rathbone said depending on the level of interest, Tracking 101 may return with a follow-up class that delves deeper into the skill of animal tracking. But, she said a class teaching the basics of tracking is likely to return each winter.
For more information on the Rogers Environmental Education Center, visit FriendsofRogers.org or the Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center, Inc. Facebook page.
Rogers Center Environmental Educator Ellen Rathbone will teach attendees the fundamentals of animal tracking such as the track formula, gait recognition, scat identification, and more. The workshop is part of Rogers Center’s free programs sponsored by the Otis Thompson Foundation, usually held on the second Saturday of every month.
Tracking 101 is open to attendees ages 10 and up, and pre-registration is required. To reserve a spot, call Rogers Center at 607-674-4733, or email Rathbone at ellen@friendsofrogers.org.
Learning the track formula is integral to animal tracking, said Rathbone, as the formula allows individuals to take bits of separate information from a track and put them together to identify an animal, rather than memorizing what each animal’s track looks like.
“[Track formula] is this weird looking thing that could read something like a lowercase ‘f’ with the number four, an uppercase ‘H’ with the number five, and then a lowercase ‘co’ (f4H5co). And you look at that and you’re like, oh my gosh I have no idea what that means. Well, that’s the track formula for squirrels, and it’s actually the track formula for rodents” Rathbone explained.
“Once you know that the F is the front foot, the H is the hind foot, whichever one is capitalized is the larger foot, and then the numbers represent the number of toes you usually see,” she continued. “So in rodents, their front feet are smaller than their back feet, they have four toes in the front and five in the back, and claws often show. And once you know that, suddenly it’s easy to identify what a track is rather than having to try to memorize what each footprint looks like.”
She said there are many other areas the workshop will cover that can be helpful when tracking animals. Learning to recognize gait — such as walking, trotting, and loping or galloping — can give clues to what an animal might be, as certain animals have what are called “baseline gaits.”
In addition to learning tracking basics, attendees will also put what they learn into practice by identifying animal track photos, and if there is snow at the center, by heading outside to try real-life animal tracking.
“In the event we should actually have snow, you usually do not see the animals feet, so it’s hard to identify what the animal is; All you see are holes in the snow,” said Rathbone. “So when you learn the gaits — and you can do measurements to learn how big the animal was, how big the footprints are — it gives you a good idea of what the animal could be, because animals have certain what they call ‘baseline gaits.’ So certain patterns you know are most likely to be certain animals.”
But Tracking 101 goes beyond just identifying what animal left their mark. Rathbone said one of the most exciting parts of tracking is figuring out the story behind the track. For example, identifying habits and behaviors of coyotes.
“You can tell when the female is in heat, and you can tell where a mating has taken place. You can tell where a fox has pounced in the snow where its nose landed. Did it catch something?” said Rathbone. “Really good trackers, they can go out there and say, ‘this was a female, and she was walking along, and here she looked over her left shoulder, and there is where something else happened.’ And really good trackers can tell all that just by looking at tracks in the snow, and that to me is amazing, and that's one of the ones that I will teach on Saturday.”
Rathbone encourages others to learn the skill of animal tracking, as it can be an eye opener to the wildlife people are around every day, but don’t normally notice.
“I think a lot of times people today, we go outside and they have their earbuds in and they’re just outside and that’s it. But once you start to learn what’s out there and how to read the landscapes, suddenly you’re among friends,” Rathbone said.
“Like, I know these trees: this is a birch, this is a beech, this is a hemlock. I know these plants, I know those birds, I know these animal tracks, so I know there’s squirrels that are here or that a raccoon came through this area here. And so to me it just makes it so that you know your neighborhood, basically,” she added.
Tracking 101 attendees will also be provided a handout to take home that describes all the things learned in the workshop. Rathbone said depending on the level of interest, Tracking 101 may return with a follow-up class that delves deeper into the skill of animal tracking. But, she said a class teaching the basics of tracking is likely to return each winter.
For more information on the Rogers Environmental Education Center, visit FriendsofRogers.org or the Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center, Inc. Facebook page.
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