User:Karlee15/Animal track

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For the albums by the Animals, see Animal Tracks (British album) and Animal Tracks (American album).

An animal track is an imprint left behind in soil, snow, or mud, or on some other ground surface, by an animal walking across it. Animal tracks are used by hunters in tracking their prey and by naturalists to identify animals living in a given area.

Books are commonly used to identify animal tracks, which may look different based on the weight of the particular animal and the type of strata in which they are made.

Tracks can be fossilized over millions of years. It is for this reason we are able to see fossilized dinosaur tracks in some types of rock formations. These types of fossils are called trace fossils since they are a trace of an animal left behind rather than the animal itself. In paleontology, tracks often preserve as sandstone infill, forming a natural mold of the track.

Tracking Techniques
Animal tracks, also known as animal footprints, can be used to monitor and identify species in any given area. WildTrack created "Footprint identification technology (FIT)" to help improve the ability to monitor wildlife. This technology is now being used around the world.

Footprint tracking tunnels are a popular method of small animal tracking in New Zealand. These are tunnels contain an ink pad and two non-inked pads or papers to either side. Small animals can walk through the tunnels and leave their tracks on either non-inked pad. These tracking tunnels are useful for scientific research due to the cost effectiveness and large quantity that can be in place at one time. Along with the large scale data collection possible, tracking tunnels may also be used to track and identify cryptic, hard to detect species such as small amphibians or species with low densities.

Photography is another technique used widely in animal tracking. To properly use this technique the photographer must be directly over the center of the footprint or track. When photos are taken, it is essential that the photographer is able to identify which footprint they are captureing (front right, hind left, etc.) and a second observer should be there to confirm. If using the FIT database, a ruler must be placed next to the footprint at the time of capturing. Along with this, identifying information should also be in each photo. This information would include date, time, location, and numbering.

Animal Track Data
The types of data scientists are able to gather from animal tracks alone has increased as technology advances. Originally, shape was the only bit of information able to help researchers identify what species of animal the track came from. In more recent years databases, such as the one created by WildTrack, have made it much easier to gather statistically analyzable data. With the ability to run statistical comparisons of several measurements and shapes amongst different tracks from the same species has allowed researchers to confidently identify animals’ species, age, sex, and even individual specimens.

Software such as the SAS Institute’s JMP statistical software is used in combination with the FIT database to give accurate analysis of multiple footprint features. In a study conducted by WildTrack on Amur Tigers, JMP was used in combination with FIT to compare 128 measurable variables from a collection of Amur Tiger footprints. However, in this study, only 10 variables were needed for a 98% accuracy of sex determination from the tracks.

References

Carolyn M. King & R. L. Edgar (1977) Techniques for trapping and tracking stoats (Mustela erminea); a review, and a new system, New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 4:2,193-212, DOI: 10.1080/03014223.1977.9517953

Jarvie, S., & Monks, J. M. (2014). Step on it: can footprints from tracking tunnels be used to identify lizard species?. New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 41(3), 210-217.

Petso, T., Jamisola, R. S., Jr., & Mpoeleng, D. (2022). Review on methods used for wildlife species and individual identification. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 68(1). doi:10.1007/s10344-021-01549-4

Jewell, Z. C., Alibhai, S. K., Weise, F., Munro, S., Van Vuuren, M., &Van Vuuren, R. (2016). Spotting cheetahs: identifying individuals by their footprints. Journal of visualized experiments: JoVE, (111).

Gu, J., Alibhai, S. K., Jewell, Z. C., Jiang, G., & Ma, J. (2014). Sex determination of Amur tigers (panthera tigris altaica) from footprints in snow. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 38(3), 495–502. https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.432

