Mammal Tracks and Sign —A Guide to North American Species

A sticker on the cover indicates that this book has been a winner of the National Outdoor Book Award, and it is easy to see why. With more than 1,000 high-quality color photographs, another 300+ well-drawn illustrations, and numerous detailed descriptions with painstaking measurements, it is unmatched in encyclopedic breadth by anything that has come before. That will be positive for some potential users, but a distinct liability for others. Although built like a field guide, with heavy paper and a tough cover, at 14 × 21 ×4 cm it is 2.5 times the volume of Murie (1954) original in the Peterson field guide series and, at 1.25 kg, is 3.5 times heavier. In practical terms, most users will probably want to take mammal “sign” to the book rather than the book to sign. With the advent and proliferation of compact digital cameras, that may now be easier to accomplish than it used to be. In a lengthy introduction and in Chapter 1 (Getting Started), the author makes clear his passion for tracking and offers a variety of perspectives on the physical, mental, and sometimes metaphysical aspects involved. Although he mentions and strongly advocates use of tracking in scientific study, examples provided are mostly from his own experience, and the reader interested in a broader background on that subject, for example, starting with the early ruminations of Stebler (1939) and illustrated by Schofield (1960) classic study, will have to look elsewhere. The meat of the book is in the following 8 chapters, organized by sign type as follows: Chapter 2 (Tracks and Trails—336 pages). Chapter 3 (Runs, Ridges, Tunnels, and Eskers—20 pages). Chapter 4 (Beds, Lays, Wallows, Baths, Nests, Burrows, Dens, and Cavities— 70 pages), Chapter 5 (Scat, Urine, and Other Secretions— 106 pages). Chapter 6 (Sign on Vegetation and Fungi—126 pages). Chapter 7 (Other Signs of Feeding—54 pages), and Chapter 8 (Mammal Remains—10 pages). Chapter 7 even includes a table of distances between canine teeth for most of the carnivores, to assist those conducting “whodunits” at predation sites. Given the extent and level of coverage that the above list demonstrates (and the book delivers), I was surprised that there was not even a brief mention of ungulate mineral licks. A downside of the organization by sign type is that the researcher or naturalist interested in a particular species will have to look in several places to assess or discover the various kinds of sign it may make. A good index facilitates that somewhat, but h is still cumbersome. For example, 10 different kinds of beaver sign are depicted or described in 14 different locations. Despite the apparent inclusiveness of the subtitle, but not surprisingly, coverage in the book is not uniform or consistent across taxa. In Chapter 2, the most complete in that regard, the number of species whose tracks are depicted or described mclude the American opossum, nine-banded arma-dillo, 7 insectivores, 39 carnivores, the horse, 13 artiodactyls, 63 rodents, and 10 lagomorphs. Although the author has traveled, tracked, and photographed in many places in preparation for this book, there are still many species whose sign is not described. Having said that, most of the species that leave conspicuous sign and many that do not are covered. Another difficulty with organization by sign type is that the mammal community context, both regionally and by habitat, is lost. Although range maps are provided in Chapter 2, users will have to do a lot of thumbing through the book to locate species whose sign they might be encountering in particular locations. Mammalogists contemplating the use of artificial tracking substrates in their studies will find useful descriptions and tips on foot and track morphology but, particularly if studying small mammals, will likely have to develop their own local reference guides. The book is remarkably free of errors, either typographical or technical. There are some peculiarities in subject coverage. For example, although the first 50 pages of Chapter 2 cover everything one might wish to know about mammal feet, stance, gaits, strides, and aspects of measurement and interpretation of those features, discussion of “snow tracking” does not appear until 150 pages later, in a 2-page sidebar between accounts for cougar and domestic cat. Likewise, a brief discussion of tracking implications of sexual dimorphism in size shows up in a sidebar between bison and mountain goat track accounts. For mammals with which I am familiar, I found only 1 illustration label that I thought might be questionable. A photograph of a midden of crab carapaces on page 713 is attributed to muskrat feeding activity but looks more like mink work to me (but I have no experience in Maine, the location involved). Many of the photographs of sign other than tracks and scats are difficult to interpret, and we can know what they represent only by reading the captions and not by discernable characteristics. Distinct trails on a high talus slope (page 374) are attributed, no doubt correctly, to Dall's sheep, but they could just as well involve any of the other mountain ungulates. I have no trouble believing that the burrow shown on page 432 is that of a golden-mantled ground squirrel, but not all or even most burrows made by the species look like that. These are not failings of the book, which provides an extraordinary array of illustrations and descriptions that can help expand observers' horizons on where to look, what to look for, and variations that can be expected. I would simply caution that recognizing something is one thing and clearly defining how one knows what it is can be quite another, and the book does not provide the latter in all cases. That aside, thanks to the photograph on page 582, I now know that sign I once observed and have long wondered about was left by a heather vole. As Elbroch well knows, one becomes a proficient tracker and reader of wildlife sign primarily by experience in the field, not in the library. Nonetheless, his book is a monumental reference on the subject of tracking and sign interpretation, and I am glad that I have it.

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