New England Wildlife Tracking
New England Tracking Resources
Tracking is a journey. It is challenging and humbling but you will always have a resource to learn from, like an animal, a person, a book, or an online resource. Opportunities abound for the curious.
Books
Reference
Mammal Tracking
Mammal Tracks and Sign: A Guide to North American Species. Second Edition By Mark Elbroch with contributions by Casey McFarland. 2019. Globe Pequot / Stackpole Books.
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The most authoritative mammal tracking reference book in North America. The continental scope of this book makes it a bit cumbersome in the field but there is no resource as technical and exhaustive as this book.
Reference
Mammal Tracking
Tracking and the Art of Seeing, 2nd Edition: How to Read Animal Tracks and Signs. By Paul Rezendes. 1999. HarperCollins Publishers.
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A classic tracking book. Each chapter is devoted to a species which allows for great depth on the track and sign of the species. The format can be a little tough because you have to read through the chapter to find track measurements BUT in the back are some amazing charts that compare species measurements.
Reference
Northeast Mammal Tracking
A Field Guide to Tracking Mammals in the Northeast By Linda J. Spielman. 2017. Countryman Press, W.W. Norton
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A favorite regional tracking book of mine. A great introductory tracking book that includes basic species behavior along with tracking morphology, gaits, and sign. My favorite part is her artistic depiction of how each track may look in differing substrate depths and hardnesses. Not as technical or glossy as Mark Elbroch's book but more approachable.
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I also love reading her blog which has even more information and beautiful track and sign pictures.
Reference
Bird Tracking
Bird Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species. By Mark Elbroch and Eleanor Marie Marks. 2001. Stackpole Books.
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The most authoritative bird track and sign reference book in North America. As with its mammals counterpart, the continental scope of this book makes it a bit cumbersome in the field but there is no resource as technical and exhaustive as this book.
Reference
Bird Tracking
Bird Tracks: Includes 55 North American Species (Adventure Quick Guides) Pocket Book. By Jonathan Poppele. 2023. Adventure Publications
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Excellent quick reference guide with the size and durability meant for use in the field. The tracks are all life-sized. It is exclusively focused on tracks and how to identify the species, which it does extremely well but if you want anything about bird sign, you'll have to look in Elbroch and Mark's Bird Track book referenced above.
Reference
Trailing
Practical Tracking: A guide to following footprints & finding animals. Louis Liebenberg, Adriaan Louw & Mark Elbroch. 2010. Stackpole Books.
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Tracking is a skill that you can't really learn through a book and the branch of tracking that will definitely make this statement ring true is trailing. There is no substitute for "dirt time". Your eyes need to adjust to the substrate and lighting and learn the patterns in order to form thousands of memories to create a search image. This search image allows you to find the trail and stay on it. This book gives you strategies and stories to carry you through the challenges.
Reference
Inspirational
Trailing
Bow Hunting
Tracking the American Black Bear. Preston Taylor. 2021. Independently published.
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This book interweaves storytelling from many excellent trackers while spelling out the best wildlife trailing practices. This book will accelerate the learning curve for trailing animals which is extremely challenging. He also brings an important voice and perspective from his experiences hunting. He believes it is an intimate and sacred form of connection to the world that many have lost.
Reference
Bird Language
What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World. By Jon Young. 2012. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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This is the authoritative book on bird language. Jon Young (Tom Brown's student) combines storytelling with detailed descriptions of how to recognize bird language patterns. The book can be complimented with the Advanced Bird Language recordings and free bird alarm Mp3s from his website.
Inspirational
Nature Connection
The Tracker: The Story of Tom Brown, Jr., As Told to William Jon Watkins. 1978. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall,
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Tom Brown Jr. and this story in particular is the reason why many people have found tracking in the modern era. If you want to read inspiring tracking stories by night that make you want to spring out of bed to go outside in the morning this is a good start. The tracking morphology in it is not very accurate, so just ignore the tracks and enjoy Tom's story.
Inspirational
Nature Connection
Tracking
Dersu the trapper. Arsenʹev, V. K. 1872-1930. 2006. Kingston, N.Y. : McPherson & Company.
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The true story of an indigenous Gold of the Ussuri basin in the Russian Far East. He lived traditionally through hunting, gathering, and trapping. His attunement with the wildlife and natural world around him gives a modern person an idea of what a human can perceive when we are connected with the world around us.
Field Courses
Apprenticeship
Primitive Skills
Vermont Wilderness School.Bob Etzweiler teaches a wildlife tracking apprenticeship, summer wildlife tracking intensive, and a hunting apprenticeship. They are Located in Brattleboro, VT
Tracking Intensive
Primitive Skills
Maine Primitive Skills School teaches a 5-day intensive on wildlife tracking and have 1 and 2 day tracking forays throughout the year. They are located in Augusta, ME.
Field Intensive
Trotting Fox offers a wildlife tracking intensive for women and offers 1 day tracking forays throughout the year. Kathy Dean is certified as level 4 for Track and Sign. She is located in Ashfield, MA.
Tracking Foray
Lead With Nature offers weekend tracking forays and often hosts evaluations for Tracker Certification North America. Dan Gardoqui is based out of southern Maine.
Tracking Workshop
Keeping Track offers wildlife tracking technical workshops that teach professionals how to identify and document wildlife track and sign. Sue Morse is based out of Richmond, VT.
Tracking Intensive
Tracking Connection offers tracking forays and e-learning. Sophie Mazowita is a certified track and sign specialist and is based out of Jeffersonville, VT.
Tracking Forays
Primitive Skills
The Roots School offers 1 and 2 day tracking forays. The Roots School is based out of Corinth, VT.
Online Resources/Courses
Phone App
Mammal Tracking
iTrack. By Jonah Evans.
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This app is an excellent companion to your wildlife tracking journey. While it does not have an exhaustive list of North American mammals, it has helped me immensely because I do not always have my reference books on me but I usually have my phone on me. The app is affordable, fast, does not require the internet to work, and you can use filter feature to narrow down the list of potential animal tracks that you are looking at.
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He also has a directory for tracking schools and businesses on both his website and app.
Online Course
Tracking
Bird Language
Survival
Naturalist Studies. By Lee Burton.
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Lee Burton (Jon Young's Student) has taken wildlife tracking, bird language, and wilderness survival into the digital age. He has made these subjects into college level online courses and teaches them at various universities. I took the Wildlife Tracking course and can attest that he interweaves Mark Elbroch's Book and his own experience to create a surprisingly effective learning environment for Wildlife tracking. If you're curious about what the course feels like he has a small selection of tracking videos from the course freely on youtube.
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He also hosts a podcast by the same name about these topics.
Online Course
Mammal Tracking
Tracking Connection By Sophie Mazowita.
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Sophie is a certified track and sign specialist and runs an excellent e-learning wildlife tracking course. The course teaches the fundamentals of wildlife track and sign but also digs into tougher concepts like gaits and distinguishing between challenging animal group.
Online Mentoring
Mammal Tracking
The Mindful Tracker. By George Leoniak.
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George offers a wildlife tracking mentorship for those embarking on a quest to get certified through Tracker Certification North America. The mentorship is done over zoom or in person if you live near southern Vermont.
Directory
Tracking and Trailing Evaluations
Track and Sign/Trailing Evaluation Directory. By Tracker Certification.
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Evaluations are first and foremost an excellent learning opportunity. The have in-depth discussions about track and sign identification or opportunities to watch and follow experienced trailers. Use this directory to find out if there is an event located near you.
Online Presentations
Tracking
Trailing
Tracker Tuesday. By Tracker Certification.
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These are archived presentations from leading wildlife tracking experts on a variety of topics from aging, snow tracking, how tracking can aide research project, how unqualified trackers can ruin a quality research idea, Mountain Lions, trailing, and many others.