Let’s face it, exploring nature with kids is hardly a stealthy venture. Any wildlife in the vicinity is either gone or hiding by the time your noisy troop gets there. Often the only animals we see on our adventures are squirrels indignantly twitching their tails to the beat of their scolding chirps, and ranging cattle who couldn’t care less if we spotted them or not.

Luckily, wildlife leaves all sorts of signs behind, and when we notice these clues we can piece together stories about these creatures without ever seeing them. Tracking wildlife with kids, whether it’s spotting a dog print at the park, a bear track on a trail, or a little mountain of squirrel-gnawed pinecone flakes, lights up little eyes and minds as they discover evidence of wild lives beyond their field of view.

Plus, pointing out a track, pile of poop, or a feather has never failed to distract my toddler from trail woes. Wildlife sign sparks his imagination, turns a stale forest into a living home for his favorite creatures, and makes him excited to trot around the next bend.

In this ultimate guide to tracking wildlife with kids, learn why wildlife tracking is good for kids, what wildlife signs to look out for, essential gear to bring along and some fun animal tracking activities (including a Wildlife Tracking Nature Scavenger Card printable!)-everything you need for fun and educational outdoor adventures with your children.

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Besides happy distractions and effortless nature education for toddlers, tracking can teach and enhance patience and observation skills to older kids too.

Not only does tracking get your kids excited to hit the trail, paying attention to small clues otherwise easily overlooked boosts knowledge of local wildlife, magnifies appreciation for the little things, and encourages outdoor physical activity.
Imagining the lives and stories of different animals also supports curiosity and learning that can help deepen family bonds.

Overall, this activity is a recipe for deeper, richer understanding of the wild world for the whole family.

While going about their daily lives, wild animals and birds leave a variety of clues behind, each giving us insights into their identity and habits. My toddler’s favorite sign is scat (surprise surprise), but there are a variety of other pleasant hints to look for and take home.

Footprints and Tracks

Learning to recognize animal tracks is not as hard as it sounds and reveals a lot about the animal or bird that walked or hopped the path before you. To identify tracks, start by determining if you’re looking at hoof, paw or bird toe prints.

Hoof Prints

Animals with split hooves include deer, elk, moose and bighorn sheep. It can be difficult to identify species based on just the hoof print shape, but the size can help you imagine whether it was a deer or moose.

Paw Prints

Cats like cougars, dogs such as foxes, wolves, and coyotes, squirrels, and bears all walk on soft pads that leave identifiable impressions in the soil or snow. Look for toe pads and one metacarpal or metatarsal pad (I call that one the palm or heel pad).

Cat and Dog Prints

It can be difficult to tell cat and dog prints apart. Look for claw prints pressed into the mud or snow above the toe pads: dogs can’t retract their claws like cats can. In comparison with cat paws, canine paws are generally more angular in shape. Plus, dog palm pads only have two lobes on the back, where cougar tracks, for example, have three.

Bear Prints

Bear prints are much easier to recognize, partly thanks to the size. They also have distinct claws, five toe pads in a row lining an oval palm on the fore paw, or over a foot shaped heel pad on the hind paw. Grizzlies have long claws, so the points are often quite far above their toe prints, while black bear claws are shorter and often found just above the toe prints. Interestingly, skunks and badgers have similarly shaped prints to bears, just smaller!

Toe Prints

Birds such as grouse, ravens and little birds like juncos leave prints with three toes in the front and one back toe, though the back toe isn’t always obvious on grouse tracks. Geese and gulls have webbed feet, with the flaps of skin between the toes also showing up in mud and sand.

Little Critters (Rabbits and Squirrels)

Little creatures like rabbits and squirrels are plentiful, but as they are lighter their prints aren’t obvious until the snow falls. Squirrels run on their toes, so the tracks rarely show the palm pad. Look for four tiny toes on the front feet, and five on the back. Rabbits have small front feet and long back feet, and four toes on each. Both rabbit and squirrel tracks will usually show up with the front planted just behind the back.

Resources for Identifying Wildlife Tracks

A wildlife tracks book will help you with more specific identifications, including measurements, and track details beyond this article’s scope. Flip though to help you identify the tracks of big and small, including bobcats, rabbits, grouse, squirrels, raccoons and beyond.

Other Wildlife Tracking Signs

Footprints aren’t the only thing to look for. Keep an eye out for evidence of tails dragging over the ground (think beavers and otters), or wing prints from birds alighting and taking flight in deep snow (think owls diving for prey, grouse flapping away in fright and magpies strutting in the park).

Animal Scat (Droppings)

One discovery that’s sure to get any kid interested and giggling is poop, also called scat. It’s more than just a smelly surprise too. The shape of poop can indicate who it belonged to, and the contents can tell a story about what the animal chowed down on.

Animals like deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goats leave pellets in varying sizes and shapes, while dogs and cats leave logs. Bears leave piles, cows leave large flat patties.

If you’re curious about what’s inside, use a stick to nudge around in the dropping. Scat can contain berries, hair, grass, bones and other bits that tell you what the animal had for dinner.

Feathers, Fur, Nests

Tangible signs, such as feathers, fur, and antlers, are fun for everyone to find, touch and take home. The colour, pattern, shape, and texture of these treasures can tell you who left them, in some cases down to species.

Feathers

If you find a feather that flutters down from the wing of a Northern Flicker or Blue Jay, you’ll know it. Black feathers are the most common find for us, and can be either from ravens or crows. Look for feathers on the forest floor, in nests, and keep an eye out for mounds of feathers that tell the story of a bird that became a meal.

Fur

Look for fur caught in branches and fences. To figure out who snagged themselves, imagine the animal wearing it.

Nests

Finding animal homes is always a hit with kids. Look for nests and holes in trees, tunnels in snow drifts, or beds of flattened grass or snow. Take particular notice of the way birds weave their nests together and the materials they use—grasses and twigs, string and bits of fur. Sometimes nests and other homey structures contain shell shards, fur or feather remnants that can help you figure out who made and raised a family in it.

How to Go Bird Watching with Children

Rubbing, Chewing and Stashing

If you know to look for it, your surroundings are full of wildlife evidence. Moose chew willow twigs into blunt nubs. Squirrels stash mushrooms in trees to let them cure. Antlered animals rub their bony head gear on tree trunks and branches, shredding bark and creating bald patches on the tree. Woodpeckers riddle dead standing trees with holes, indicative fine piles of wood and slivers often piled up at the base of the tree.

Any combination of the clues we touched on above—and the stories they tell—can really get your child’s imagination humming and transport them into the animal’s world.

What’s great about wildlife tracking is that it requires very little special gear. You could track a bird in the sand in your swimsuit if you wanted.

If you are looking for a few handy items for dedicated wildlife sign seeking expeditions you might consider:

• A pocket wildlife tracking resource.
• Binoculars or magnifying glasses.
• Animal track plaster kit.
• A notebook or nature journal to record observations and findings.

Footprint Casts

To capture the size, texture, and life of a particularly exciting track your kids find, make a cast to take home. There are two ways to make a footprint cast.

1. Candle wax: Light a candle, let the wax drip into a footprint in mud or dirt, and allow the wax to solidify.
2. Plaster cast: Mix Plaster of Paris with water at a 2:1 ratio, fill the track up with the mixture, and let it dry.

Carefully dig out the cast, dust off the dirt or mud and voila: a fun educational activity resulting in a precious keepsake!

Nature journaling

Fill an art journal with notes, drawings and ideas inspired by walks in the woods and wild experiences. Encourage your kids to draw tracks, label items found in a big mound of bear doo, or write from the animals perspective based on the clues you’ve found. Remember that nature journals don’t need to be intimidating or perfect. In fact, the more dirt smears, taped in feathers and scratchy sketches the better.

Tips for Wildlife Tracking with Kids

Here are a few more tips for fun wildlife tracking adventures with kids.

Look for wildlife tracks close to home

Heading into the mountains or national park is an amazing way to immerse your family into nature, but local parks, nature reserves, or even backyard spaces can lead to some amazing discoveries as well.

Get creative with the places you have available. Moose signs are exciting to find, but tracking the slimy trail of a slug chewing holes across your garden can be just as engaging (if not more!) for little ones (especially if you can find the culprit).

Look for wildlife tracks close to water

You could start your wildlife tracking adventures in the mud or sand along a pond, river or beach, and look for human, dog and seagull prints.

Look for wildlife tracks in biodiverse areas

For the best chance at encountering wildlife signs, choose places known for their biodiversity, such as aspen groves or ponds. Have an idea of what sorts of wildlife frequent the area you’re exploring ahead of time so you know where and what to look for.

Don’t forget to dress for the weather

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Most importantly: have fun!

Think of wildlife signs as little stepping stones into nature, helping you and your family reach deeper into the worlds you explore.

It’s as easy as getting out there and looking around for interesting things. What wildlife sign have you discovered recently? If you have any questions or want to share your favourite finds, leave a comment below!