TRACKWISE
Read the ground — animal tracks, gaits, and field-tracking know-how.
From sizing up a track and reading its gait to aging a print, keying out scat, mixing a plaster cast, and spacing a trail-camera grid, TrackWise pairs free hands-on tracking calculators with practical field guides and a richly illustrated museum of tracks, trackways, and the animals that leave them.
Tracking Tools & Calculators
Free tools for reading sign in the field — track size & species estimator, stride/gait speed calculator, track aging guide, scat identification key, plaster cast mix ratio calculator, and trail camera spacing calculator.
Animal Track Size & Species Estimator
Enter a track's length and width, note whether claws are visible, and see which common mammals it best matches, ranked by fit
Stride Length Gait & Speed Calculator
Measure a trackway's stride length and hip height to classify the gait and estimate speed, using the equation ichnologists use for trackways
Track Aging & Freshness Guide
Pick the substrate and the weather since to get an estimated freshness window plus clues to check by eye
Scat Identification Key
Describe a scat's shape, diameter, and end taper to see which common mammals it best matches
Plaster Cast Mix Ratio Calculator
Get the right plaster-to-water amounts at the standard 2:1 ratio for the track you're casting
Trail Camera Spacing Calculator
Pick a target species or enter a known home range to get a recommended camera-grid spacing
The Trackways Museum
Wander an illustrated museum of the animals that leave the tracks we’re all trying to read — mammals and the birds that share their trails, the reptiles and amphibians whose prints turn up at the water’s edge, and the ancient fossil trackways that let us read gait and speed from footprints laid down millions of years ago, each in its own wing, so you can get to know the animal behind the print: what it looks like, how it lives, and where its track fits among the rest.
Tour the museum →From the Field Journal
Fresh guides on track and gait identification, scat and sign, field techniques like casting and trail cameras, and what fossil trackways teach us about how extinct animals moved.
How to Tell a Coyote Track from a Dog Track
Coyote and dog tracks overlap enough in size to fool most people at a glance. Here's the shape, straddle, and trail-pattern evidence that actually separates them.
Reading Gait Patterns: Walk, Trot, Bound, and Gallop
The pattern a trail of tracks makes on the ground tells you as much as any single print. Here's how to read walking, trotting, bounding, and galloping gaits at a glance.
How to Make a Plaster Track Cast
A plaster cast turns a single fleeting print into a permanent, examinable record. Here's a step-by-step method for a clean pour that holds fine detail.
Deer, Elk, or Moose? Telling Ungulate Tracks Apart
All three leave a two-toed, heart-shaped hoofprint with no claw marks. Size, dewclaw placement, and habitat are what actually separate a deer track from an elk or moose track.
Scat Safety and Sign: What You Can Learn Without Touching
Scat is one of the richest sources of tracking information in the field — and one you should never handle directly. Here's what to look for, and why to keep your distance.
Setting Up Your First Trail Camera Grid
A single trail camera on a promising trail tells you something. A properly spaced grid tells you what's actually using an entire area. Here's how to plan one.
Keep Learning
Plain-language explainers on gait patterns and tracking fundamentals, the signs animals leave beyond footprints, field techniques for casting and camera-trapping, and the science and scientists behind tracking — everything you need to read the ground more fluently.
Visit the Learn hub →