Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign

A good observer of nature, walking, say, in an oak forest, may discern that some of the acorns on which he or she is treading are broken into little bits. After reading wildlife interpreter and photographer Paul Rezendes's guidebook to animal signs, that same observer will be able to tell which of those acorns have been split by human footsteps and deer hooves and which have been gnawed apart by squirrels--and by what species of squirrel. A wonderfully thorough, well-illustrated compendium, Rezendes's text covers a wide range of North American animal species, including rodents, hoofed animals, bears, raccoons, opossums, and members of the weasel, rabbit, dog, and cat families. He describes not only the signs these animals leave but also their ways of life throughout the year, and with an appropriately environmentalist purpose. "Ultimately," Rezendes writes, "tracking an animal makes us sensitive to it--a bond is formed, an intimacy develops. We begin to realize that what is happening to the animals and to the planet is actually happening to us." He's right, of course, but one need not take such a macrocosmic view of nature to take pleasure in, and learn from, this fine book. --Gregory McNamee

• Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks: Third Edition (Peterson Field Guides)
• Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species
• Animal Tracks: A Folding Pocket Guide to the Tracks & Signs of Familiar North American Species (Wildlife and Nature Identification)
• Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking
• Tracker's Field Guide: A Comprehensive Manual For Animal Tracking (Falcon Guides: Field Guides)
• Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species
• What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World
• Peterson Reference Guide to the Behavior of North American Mammals (Peterson Reference Guides)
• The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals_and Other Forgotten Skills (Natural Navigation)
• Tom Brown's Science and Art of Tracking: Nature's Path to Spiritual Discovery