Don’t forget to look down when you’re out hiking the Canadian Rocky Mountain trails. Identifying a well-preserved wolf print on a trail or noting where a bear scraped its claws down a tree can be as exhilarating (and for some, a lot less terrifying) as seeing the real thing. Winter or summer, in wet mud, dusty dirt or freshly fallen snow, animals leave telltale trails, revealing not only their presence but also their identities. Look out for single paw or hoof prints. Even partial prints with obscured toe or claw marks offer clues as to what trod the trail ahead of you. Perfectly preserved bear, wolf or cougar tracks are common on Canadian Rockies trails. Experienced trackers learn how to differentiate between right and left as well as fore and hind prints. As with all mountain activities, mileage is the greatest teacher. Take along some plaster of Paris mix on your next hike. Making a cast of a good print can be a fun family activity and makes a first-rate Canadian Rockies keepsake. Also, try to utilize some of the following terminology next time you’re on the trail:
A print is a single mark or impression one foot leaves in the snow or soil. Measure a print’s width from one side to the other and its length from front to back, not including claw marks. A series of four or more single prints or print groupings made by an animal is a track pattern. The track pattern’s width is called the straddle, measured from the prints’ outer edges across the track pattern’s width. The distance between a walking animal’s prints is called the stride, measured from one print’s centre to the next print’s centre.
Each animal has its own characteristic gait. A deer can run, bound or leap but the way it walks is its normal gait. There are four common animal gaits, each with recognizable track patterns – diagonal walkers, bounders, hoppers and pacers. Bounders leave a distance between print pairs called a leap. A leap is also the distance left between hoppers’ prints, called clusters. Leap is measured from the most forward print’s front end to the nearest print’s end. Diagonal walkers leave track patterns resembling single prints in a straight line as their limbs on opposite body sides move at the same time. When the left front moves, so does the right rear, with the hind feet usually landing in the same prints the front feet left behind. Diagonal walkers include deer, moose, elk, goats, sheep, cats and dogs (domestic and wild alike). A bounder’s pattern looks like evenly spaced print pairs. With short legs and long bodies, bounders – weasel family members – reach out with both front feet, bringing both back feet to land just behind where the front feet landed. Hoppers, which include rabbits, hares and most rodents (except porcupines, beavers and muskrats, which are all pacers), leave behind print clusters of two small (fore) and two large (hind) prints. Pushing off with their hind feet hoppers land with their front feet first as their hind feet swing all the way through to land ahead of the front feet. Heavyset pacers waddle from side to side, creating a track pattern where each foot leaves its own print. Their hind feet are always larger than their front feet and they move both right limbs, then both left. Bears, raccoons, skunks and badgers are all pacers.
