Turkey’s
Have you ever gonna out on a hike and seen different animal tracks and thought to yourself I wish I knew what these are from? Well today we’re going to learn how to identify a few of these animal tracks! Look at the picture above I bet a lot of you are looking at that going that looks like a bird track but it looks a little to big. Well you’re correct it is a bird but not just any bird the tracks in the picture above were made from a turkey. How to tell
The first thing you want to look at in turkey tracks is if the heel is rounded this will be especially displayed in a tom turkey. Another way to see if the bird tracks you are looking at are turkey tracks is if there is three forward toes. The thing is some birds also can have 3 toes in the front so to make sure that what you’re looking at is a turkey track you can look at the size of the track. A turkey track measures approximately 3 3/4 – 5 inches long by 4 – 5 1/2 inches wide.
Black Bear’s
This next track was made by a California black bear. You may find these out camping near campsites, black bears are notorious for getting into trash cans and anything will delicious smells. If you look closely near your campsite depending on where you are you might just get lucky and find some tracks of a bear.
How to tell
To determine if you are looking at a black bear’s tracks there is a few thing a to look closely at. A black bear has five toes that are separated. If the track is fresh you might be able to see the horizontal line that runs from the big toe to the little toe through the middle of the pad. Depending on the type of ground the bear has walked on you might be able to see claw marks on the edge of the toes, yet if you are hiking or camping in a hard dirt and grassy area seeing the claws is unlikely. Most back pads of black bear tracks are 3 1/2 – 4 inches wide and 5 – 7 inches long. The front pad of a black bear is approximately 3 – 4 inches wide and 4 – 5 inches long.