Tracking the Desert
Bobcat tracks.
(Photo by Jonah Evans)
By Jonah Evans
The Chihuahuan Desert is teeming with life. From iconic pronghorn and mountain lions to minuscule woodrats and pocket mice, the desert is home to a diverse assortment of wildlife. Despite this abundance, the landscape can seem a desolate and empty place.
But, don’t be fooled by the quiet. Whether you are predator or prey, it pays to be unseen. You may not see many animals when you’re hiking in the desert; however, if you slow down and take a look at the ground, you’ll find signs of life everywhere. What are these signs and what can they tell you about the animals that left them?
Each day in the desert, the story of the previous night’s activities are recorded in the tracks, burrows, feces, and bones left by wild animals. In pockets of sand, muddy stream banks and along dusty roads, the night’s dramas wait to be discovered.
A simple walk down a desert trail can reveal a complex story of interweaving plots and remarkable characters. If you notice the tracks of a bobcat in a meadow full of pocket gopher burrows, you may realize why the gopher lives a subterranean life, rarely venturing far from its burrow.
By finding mesquite seeds in the scat of a coyote, you learn that this animal eats a variety of foods, not just meat. And if there are no mesquite trees within view, you can begin to imagine the incredible distances that a coyote travels in a single night.
Indigenous peoples all around the world pay attention to signs like these. In fact, we are arguably all hard-wired—from hundreds of thousands of years of evolution—to track animals. For many early people, the ability to read animal tracks and sign was nothing short of a matter of life and death. Not only was tracking critical for hunting and trapping, but it also helped locate predators and enemies.
Today tracking is for everyone. Once a person is tuned in to the world of tracks and sign, they find that even their back yard holds mysteries to be solved.
To become a competent tracker, it helps to be equal part scientist and storyteller. The scientist half helps you use deductive reasoning, avoid jumping to conclusions and conduct background research on animals and their behaviors. While the storyteller half helps you bring tracks to life, piece together mysteries from obscure clues, and remain flexible in your interpretations.
It also helps to slow down when looking for animals tracks. There are many places where tracks can be hard—if not impossible—to find. If there aren’t tracks, look for other, more subtle, signs that offer a wealth of information to the sharp-eyed observer. Look for lizard scat: small dark cylinders of insect parts with a white sac on one end or be aware of the burrows and scrapes that are created by kangaroo rats, pocket mice and other rodents.
When you come across a track in the wild, there are a number of characteristics to look for that will help you identify which animal made it. What’s the shape and size of the track? Is it big, like a bear’s or small, like a mouse’s? How many toes are there and how are they shaped? Are there claw marks as in a coyote track? Or are there no claws as in a bobcat track?
The answers to these questions can tell you a lot about an animal’s lifestyle. Large blunt claws are often used for digging, while sharp, delicate claws are most likely used for climbing. The long fingers found in raccoon tracks indicate that they use their hands for grasping and manipulating objects. The small round toes of a fox are better suited for traveling quickly across large distance.
Also keep in mind that any animal can make a track, not just mammals. A track you find could just as easily have come from a bird, reptile, amphibian, invertebrate or even a branch blowing in the wind.
West Texas is home to some great places to find animal tracks. At Monahans Sand Hills State Park, you can follow the tracks of porcupine and badgers through the sand dunes. Or go down to Big Bend National Park where you may come across the tracks of a black bear or mountain lion.
The elusive nature of wild animals is what makes tracking exciting. Finding tracks is more than an alternative to seeing an animal; it’s a window into its life. So the next time you’re outside, take a look at the ground, there are signs of life everywhere.
Volunteer writer Jonah Evans is a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist and master tracker.
Have a question or comment about this episode? Contact Nature Notes Coordinator Megan Wilde at mwilde [at] cdri [dot] org. Or discuss this episode on Nature Notes’ Facebook page. This episode originally aired on June 3, 2010.
References & Resources for Educators
- Nature Tracking: Jonah and Ciel Evans’ animal tracking resources
- Scats and Tracks of the Desert Southwest by James Halfpenny (Falcon Guides, 2000)
.
Nature Notes is sponsored by the Meadows Foundation and the Dixon Water Foundation and is produced in cooperation with Marfa Public Radio.
