How to Read Winter Animal Tracks on Your Hike

Have you ever wanted to learn how to read winter animal tracks on your hike?

Winter gives you the perfect opportunity to discover a story being created in the snow. The story is by all the critters in the area living in nature. It lets you understand what wildlife is out in your area and how to identify them based on their tracks.

Winter is the best time to learn, too, because the snow makes it very easy to see the tracks versus dirt with leaves and vegetation covering the surface.

In this guide, I’ll be showing you the basics of how to read winter animal tracks while on a hike. It’s important for you to consider your safety, especially when tracking animals that could cause danger to you. It’s also important to ensure you don’t harass any animals and let nature be nature.

Why Winter is Ideal for Tracking

Winter is truly the best time to learn how to read winter animal tracks on your hike.

When fresh snow falls, it preserves clear impressions in the snow. Snowfall creates a canvas on top of the ground for nature and wildlife to tell their story on. You just have to move through it carefully to watch for it.

Winter means reduced vegetation, and that makes it much easier to see the tracks of wildlife in nature.

You can find more evidence of wildlife during the winter. Of course, you can see their tracks in the snow. However, that also leaves more evidence that it’s easier to spot, such as scat, signs of feeding, and fur.

Animals tell a story about how they live when they move around in the snow, and that gives you some interesting things to look for while enjoying nature.

Essential Gear for Winter Track Reading

Before you learn how to read winter animal tracks, it’s important to bring the essential gear with you on your hikes.

Wear proper footwear, such as warm winter boots that are waterproof. You might also need to attach a traction control device to your foot for better grip on snow and ice. Wear comfortable clothing that wicks sweat and is defined by layers.

Download some kind of app or bring a field guide with you to help spot tracks in the snow so that you know what you’re looking for.

Bring a camera with you to help document tracks in the snow. You can reference them later on if you don’t know what they’re from. Your smartphone camera will work just as well for this task, as well.

You can also bring other tools if you want to be a citizen scientist, like measuring tools, a notebook for observations, and something for size reference.

Basic Track Identification Principles

The following basic track identification principles will help you further understand how to read winter animal tracks while hiking.

Understanding Track Patterns

There are two common types of track patterns. These are walking patterns and bounding patterns. Once you recognize each pattern, tracking becomes a lot easier.

Walking patterns usually come from wildlife, such as:

• Deer
• Coyotes
• Foxes
• Bobcats
• Raccoons
• Humans

Bounding patterns are often made by:

• Rabbits
• Squirrels
• Weasels
• Some Rodents

Walking patterns are typically evenly spaced out with left-to-right patterns, the rear foot often lands slightly behind or slightly overprints the front foot, and the stride isn’t too long or too short.

Bounding patterns have front feet landing first and side-by-side, hind feet often land ahead of front feet, and the tracks create a “Y” or “V” shaped pattern in the snow.

Knowing the pattern of the track can help you easily determine what kind of animal you’re likely looking at.

Key Features to Observe

When looking at tracks in the snow, it’s a good idea to observe the key features to help you with identification.

You can identify the animal based on the number of toes it has. For example, two large split hoof prints will most likely be a white-tailed deer, elk, or even a feral hog. Four toes on all feet will likely be a canine, feline, or even a rabbit.

If the claws are always visible, it will most likely be a canine, as they cannot retract their claws, while cats rarely show claws in their prints.

The pad shape and size will also help with identifying the animal. Canines will have triangular or heart-shaped pads, felines have more of a round overall print, bears resemble that of a human print, and raccoons’ pads look like a tiny humans.

Measuring the overall dimensions of the print and basing it on a field guide will also be helpful with identification.

Common Winter Animal Tracks to Identify

Learn how to read winter animal tracks on your hike using the following images of various wildlife groups commonly found in nature.

Deer Family

Canine Family

Feline Family

Reading Track Stories: Beyond Identification

Learning how to read winter animal tracks on your hike can also help you learn a story about the critters you’re tracking.

You can follow the trail to understand the behavior of the animal. You can identify feeding sites and sources of food and recognize predator-prey interactions. You can also spot resting areas, shelters, and spots they’re marking as their territory.

Additional Signs to Look For

Look for additional clues to help tell a story of the wildlife you’re tracking in the snow.

• Scat and urine
• Fur and features
• Feeding evidence
• Scent and marking locations
• Blood and drag marks

These signs will tell you what you’re looking for as you continue to follow wild animal tracks in the snow.

Safety and Ethics

Remember to consider your own and the animal’s safety when doing this sort of thing, and make sure you’re ethical about it.

Keep a safe distance away from wildlife. Your presence could scare them enough to attack you or get hurt trying to flee you. The less the animal has to see you, the better off you both will be.

Always practice Leave No Trace when tracking wildlife through prints in the snow, and pack out what you pack in.

Respect the habitat of wildlife in the area. Try not to damage their best or den, whether on purpose or by accident. The habitat is often very precious and can easily be destroyed by humans if they’re not careful.

Avoid tracking wildlife during certain times, like when migration and denning occurred or during really harsh weather conditions.

Tips for Improving Your Tracking Skills

Continue to improve your skills as you learn how to read winter animal tracks on your hiking adventures.

It’s best to practice close to home. After heavy snow, just go out into your backyard and start searching from there. You’ll discover that your backyard is likely pretty alive if you have a little bit of yard.

Take photos of prints, scat, and fur on your hikes to compare field guides and online sources to help with identifying the animals.

Join local groups on social media and learn from them. Look for organizations and citizen scientist groups in your community. Make your own group if none exist, and invite your friends and family to be a part of it.

Keep a tracking journal and record every finding in it to keep records and have something to reference at a later date if you need to.

Learn about the different wildlife in your area. Learn their habitat and behaviors. This will help you identify wildlife while tracking their prints and stories in the snow.

Final Thoughts

It’s very rewarding to be able to look down at a track in the snow and know immediately what animal made it.

Start out with common tracks around your house to get a vibe for how to read winter animal tracks in nature. Then move on to the woods and the hiking trails. While tracking, look for clues that tell a story of what the critter was doing, and your hikes will be much more rewarding each time.

If you’ve found this article to be interesting and you’d like to support my efforts in writing it, please consider becoming a Patreon Member for as little as a few dollars a month.

Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter for more hiking tips, gear reviews, and upcoming events in and around Shawnee National Forest.

And until next time, I’ll see you on the trail!