This beginner course is a great place to start for those looking to improve their ability to identify a range of wildlife tracks and signs.
You will learn skills to confidently identify a variety of mammal and bird activity including the physical appearance and ID features of a tracks, feeding signs, homes, and droppings. You will also have plenty of time exploring outdoors to put your new found knowledge into practice, leaving you with a solid introduction to the world of tracking.
Wildlife tracking is an ancient science and art – one that humans once relied upon for survival. Tracking involves a range of skills such as identifying the animal that left the clue, working out what it was doing and when, and even finding the animal itself. Tracking is a great way to hone our ability to observe details around us and to build our knowledge of wildlife, specifically their presence, movements and feeding ecology. This place-based training course from the Field Studies Council includes a balance of classroom-led and outdoor learning opportunities focusing on building introductory knowledge of wildlife tracks and signs, and the identification/ understanding of some examples of these. It will introduce Master Listing as a concept to help objectively interpret what we find in the field.
Tutor: Sam Devine-Turner
Sam, of Scruff Stuff, is passionate about offering opportunities for people to connect with nature. She encourages and enables people to notice and interpret the clues left behind by wildlife that are all around us, waiting to be discovered.
