The Differences Between Animal Prints & Tracks

Comparing Animal Footprints

• When an animal steps on a soft surface such as mud or wet sand the foot or paw leaves an impression. With just a few exceptions, most wild and domestic animals can be identified by the shape and size of an impression made by a single paw. Features used for identification include shape, number of toes or claws, the depth of impression, and the width and length of the footprint.

Tracks

• An animal track can be the same thing as an animal footprint, but most often an animal track refers to a series of foot impressions made by the animal as it walks across a soft surface. When this series of tracks is present in its entity, much information can be garnered by taking a closer look at the series of footprints. An important feature to note is the number of toes, as this can quickly narrow down the possibilities for type of animal. In general, hooved animals have two toes; foxes, bobcats, and rabbits have four; while bears, raccoons, skunks and otters have five. Other common tracks include those made by mice, rats and squirrels which will show four front toes and five digits on the rear feet.

Gait

• Gait refers to the way a series of tracks are laid down by the animal, while it is in motion. When studying animal tracks, an individual footprint might not give you much information, but a whole series of complete prints might tell you much more about the animal that made them. Most mammals can be classified as diagonal walkers, pacers, bounders or gallopers. Studying a series of tracks can be especially helpful, when individual footprints are not clearly visible.

Other Impressions

• Other types of animal impressions can be used to identify an animal.. . Birds can leave a wing impression and some reptiles leave a tail mark between their footprints. Lizards and alligators are wellknown for leaving a relativelystraight tail mark on each side of the individual footprints. Snakes, an entirely different type of reptile from lizards or alligators, leave entirely different and distinct types of trails or track. A snake leaves one continuous track, when it crosses soft ground or sand. Since the mark is continuous, it cannot be considered a print. The curvature of this track can sometimes be used to identify particular types of snakes.