I learned how to track lions and bear this weekend.

Footsore Rambler · #1 8th June 2009, 10:24 AM

Here's a news article about it.

We hiked 9 transects in the mountains that are part of Ft. Huachuca. I only saw one set of lion tracks, but the total count was 10 sets. My group didn't find bear tracks either, but we saw trees that had bear scratch marks, and found some hair.

I also learned how to identify signs of coatimundi. They sweep the ground with their noses, leaving marks that look like smileys.

It was very cool and I learned a lot.

HongKongFooey · #2 8th June 2009, 10:45 AM

That sounds like a blast. Tracking bears around here is pretty easy though. All you have to do is drive to a rural dump.

Seriously though, I've read several of Tom Brown's books and it really is quite an art.

KidVermicious · #3 8th June 2009, 06:15 PM

Neat, I wanna track mountain lions!

Bear_Nenno · #4 9th June 2009, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HongKongFooey

Tracking bears around here is pretty easy though. All you have to do is drive to a rural dump.

Hey! Fuck you!

Uthrecht · #5 9th June 2009, 04:12 AM

Quick! Tranq him and tag him!

Footsore Rambler · #6 9th June 2009, 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uthrecht

Quick! Tranq him and tag him!

Where's Tranquilis when you need him?

Bear_Nenno, I hope that was not your hair that I found this weekend. I especially hope it wasn't your scat.

Jaglavak · #7 9th June 2009, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HongKongFooey

Tracking bears around here is pretty easy though.

Tracking bears around here is even easier.
All you do is park near a wilderness area and fire up the BBQ.
You might want to leave the keys in the ignition.

Doyle · #8 9th June 2009, 08:51 AM

What were you going to do if you found one?

Uthrecht · #9 9th June 2009, 08:58 AM

Lure it back to the park with a pickanick basket.

Contrapuntal · #10 9th June 2009, 11:23 AM

No tigers?

Footsore Rambler · #11 9th June 2009, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doyle Hargraves

What were you going to do if you found one?

Take photos and avoid becoming dinner.

Seriously, it would be pretty awesome to see a mountain lion. I've had a few run-ins with bear before. We were in a group, so it was pretty unlikely that a large predator would be bold enough to make any aggressive moves or allow itself to be seen by us.

BarbarianAtTheGate · #12 9th June 2009, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Footsore Rambler

Seriously, it would be pretty awesome to see a mountain lion.

I actually did have an encounter with a mountain lion, about 7 years ago in Montana. I was staying in a USFS cabin. After a long hike in the mountains, I was sitting on the porch and had just cracked my first (hard earned) beer, when this extremely large cat wandered up and stood about 15 feet from the porch, eyeballing me. I was so clueless I had no idea that I should be afraid of it. After the initial fascination wore off (maybe a minute or so), I just stood up and tried to shoo it off. It was unimpressed with my order to "move on, go away", and eyeballed me for another minute or two, before finally moseying off in no big hurry. Guess he wasn't hungry. It was only later when I told some friends about it and they told me how dangerous they are that I did some Googling and realized how lucky I was that it didn't attack. Needless to say, I know enough now to be scared if I ever see one again.

Ratel · #13 12th June 2009, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Footsore Rambler

...
Seriously, it would be pretty awesome to see a mountain lion....

I've tried twice over the past few days to write a post and been interrupted. Fucking work, it's a four letter word.

Anyway, great thread Footsore, reminds me of my own tracking training. I've done two 28 day nature courses in the South African bush, and tracking has opened up an entirely new and fascinating world for me. What we were taught is that "tracking" can be broken up into tracking and trailing. Tracking is interpretation; firstly identifying the animal, then perhaps it's age, then maybe its sex (male leopard tracks are different to female leopard), which direction it went (not as easy as it seems when dealing with elephant), how old the tracks are (fresh, not so fresh and fucking dinosaur rex) etc. You can spend hours in one patch of dust identifying herds of animals. Really cool stuff.

Trailing happens when you discover tracks, and you want to get to see the animal itself. Now that's where the age and direction of tracks are crucial. I remember taking the first few steps after a set of elephant tracks and looking around, only to see the instructor going in the opposite direction. Trailing is fun, and of course dangerous. Constantly checking wind direction, trail direction, listening for sounds, breaking branches, snorts. Trailing is different because time is against you, so instead of looking at each footprint, you are scanning the ground as far ahead as possible, looking for disturbances, feeling the general direction, losing the trail, circling, starting again.

And then eventually getting sight of that rhino, that elephant....really, really exciting and rewarding.

Except leopard. I've yet to track a leopard to view, mainly because the instructor suddenly said, okay, that's far enough. According to him, leopard can sense you are trailing them, and they're highly adept at camo, very unpredictable and fucking fast. They are the fastest chargers of the Big 5. Not to be messed with.

Damn, I need to get back into the bush again, it's been too long.