Title: On Track
Subtitle: Quick ID Guide to Southern and East African Animal Tracks
Authors: Chris Stuart; Tilde Stuart
Publisher: Randomhouse Struik
Imprint: Nature
Cape Town, South Africa 2013
ISBN 9781920572532 / ISBN 978-1-920572-53-2
Softcover, 11 x 18 cm, 40 pages, throughout photographs and illustrations
This guide will help you ease your way into identifying the animal tracks you may encounter on your wanderings. Some locations are more suited to finding clear tracks than others. Prime sites include damp silt, clay and fine sand around dam edges, river banks, temporary rain-filled pools and the area between high and low tides on coastal beaches. For each species in this guide, you will find a 'perfect' drawing of a front and back track and, for most tracks, a photograph, too. We say 'perfect' because the clear track is often the exception and many tracks you encounter will be blurred, smudged or distorted. But do not be discouraged, if you follow the animal's line of travel, you are likely to encounter one or more clear footprints. Knowledge of reading tracks, apart from being a useful tool for hunter, farmer and scientist, can also be a pleasure, adding a new dimension to hikes and wanderings. Even from your vehicle, larger tracks are often visible on roads and verges within game parks. When on foot and tracking in big game country, always be alert and aware of the potential dangers.
Introduction
How to use this guide
Heavyweights
Cloven hooves
Paws
Hands & feet
Non-cloven hooves
Clusters
Three toes
Bird tracks: webbed
Bird tracks: not webbed
Tramline-like trails
Undulating trails
Watch for... (domestic animals)