Tracking & Trailing Wild Animals

We will start class with an overview of wildlife tracking to help you recognize tracks and other signs of animals, including track characteristics of mammal families present in our bioregion. Your instructors will arrange a “tracking scenario” consisting of track “cut-outs” to solidify your understanding of track identification, plus educated interpretation of what animals are doing based on their tracks. We will also choose some volunteers to demonstrate “animal forms” which are the way animals move, as this is critical to really understand how tracks get laid on the ground. Finally, we’ll embark on a real-life tracking expedition into the depths of the park, trailing what we find.

All our workshops take place outdoors to help prevent the transmission of coronavirus and other communicable diseases. Bathroom facilities will be primitive, but we will have washing and sanitizing stations available for regular cleansing of hands, especially if using tools that may have been picked up by others earlier in the day. We also ask that you avoid touching your face or shaking hands with people outside your personal circle, and not attend events if you have a fever, cough or even a runny nose. Instructors will employ social distancing when helping students, and set-up for class will follows health department protocols with work stations separated by over a meter. Although the new coronavirus generally has less effect on younger people, that means the elderly and those with pulmonary or other issues should take additional precautions. Although open air settings reduce infection risks, once a virus has infected someone, cooler air can make infections worse, so our outdoor workshop settings are not appropriate for those who are sick with cold or flu symptoms. Check out our new blog articles related to the current situation and how it relates to our field of wilderness survival and emergency preparedness.

Enrolled youth must be accompanied by enrolled adult. No charge for children under 5 with the understanding that enrolled adult may need to step aside briefly if “information download” times are too long for toddlers.