Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet

Most common found tracks in Kananaskis Country

 Table of Contents

Weasel.................................Page 3 Red Squirrel......................Page 15

Pine Marten.........................Page 5 Snowshoe Hare................Page 17

Coyote.................................Page 7 Deer...................................Page 19

Wolf.....................................Page 9 Moose................................Page 21

Lynx...................................Page 11 Grouse...............................Page 23

Deer Mouse/Vole..............Page 13

1 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Table of Contents

 Weasel Pine Marten Coyote Wolf Lynx Deer Mouse

Page 3 Page 5 Page 7 Page 9 Page 11 Page 13

Not to scale

Meadow Vole Red Squirrel Snowshoe Deer Moose Grouse

Hare
Page 13 Page 15 Page 17 Page 19 Page 21 Page 23
Not to scale

2 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Track Patterns & Prints

 WEASEL (short-tailed)

Left Front

Right Front

Left Back
Stride:
Right Back 30-100 cm

Left Front

Right Front

Left Back

Right Back
1.8 cm

Straddle: 8 cm

1.8 cm

3 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Weasel

WEASEL (short-tailed)

“True” weasels (least, short-tailed, long-tailed) will grow new coats with the changing seasons to better
camouflage with their surroundings. However the black tip on their tail is the only part that will not change
colour.

Members of the weasel family will often display To stay warm in winter, they need to eat their
their scat and may be full of hair from prey. body weight (worth of food) in one day!
Which is mostly mice and voles.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Weasel 4

 PINE MARTEN

Right Front
Left Front

Right Back Stride:

Left Back 25-65 cm

Right Front
Left Front

Right Back
Left Back

Left Front Right Front

3.5 cm

Right Back 4 cm
Left Back

Straddle: 9-12 cm

5 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Pine Marten

PINE MARTEN

The Pine Marten is part of the Weasel Family. Their favourite food is the Red Squirrel.
Pine Martens are exceptional tree climbers. They can turn their wrists 180 degrees so
they can climb down a tree head first.

Members of the weasel family will often

display their scat on rocks and on trails.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Pine Marten 6

 COYOTE

Left Front

Right Front
Left Back

Right Back Stride:

30-40 cm

Left Front

Right Front
Left Back

Right Back

Left Front

Right Front

6.5 cm
Left Back

Right Back

5.5 cm

Straddle: 10.5-15 cm

7 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Coyote

COYOTE

Coyotes can be seen diving head-first into Coyotes have thicker tails and larger ears—
the snow to hunt mice. proportionate to their bodies—than wolves.

Coyote scat is significantly smaller than wolf. Coyote tracks can be difficult to differentiate from
Scat will be full of hair from their prey as domestic dog tracks.
wild dogs will eat the entire animal—
hair, meat and bones.
Scat = 2.5 cm in diameter

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Coyote 8

 WOLF
Left Front

Right Front

Left Back

Stride:
Right Back
40-46 cm

Left Front

Right Front

Left Back

11 cm

Right Back
10 cm

Straddle: 16-18 cm

9 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Wolf

WOLF

Compared to coyotes, wolves are much larger and their ears and tails don’t look as large because
they are more proportionate to their body. Unlike coyotes, wolves can be a variety of colours.

Wolf scat is slightly larger than a coyote’s.
Wild dog scat is usually full of hair, and
can be white from the undigested bone of
their prey. Cat scat won’t be white as
they don’t eat bone.
Scat = 2.5 cm in diameter
Ideally, wolves hunt in packs.
In winter, they prefer to hunt large game: elk,
deer & moose.
A wolf can eat 20 lbs of meat in one sitting!
This is a kill sight.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Wolf 10

LYNX
You will NOT see claw marks on a cat track,
as you do with dogs, as they have protractile claws.

Left Back

Right Back

Stride:
30-36 cm

Left Front

Right Front

Left Back 10 cm

10 cm

Right Back

Straddle: 18 cm

11 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Lynx

LYNX

Lynx can be identified by

their ear tufts, large feet and
short tail with a black tip.
They are the second largest of
the three wild cats in
Kananaskis Country.
Cougars are the largest and
bobcats are the smallest.

Scat deposited in a prepared scrape 80% of a lynx’s diet is snowshoe hare.

—a shallow hole—is a definite sign that
it belongs to a feline. There is also no
white—calcium from bone—in the scat as
they do not eat bones like dogs.
Scat = 2 cm in diameter
When hare populations are at
their highest a lynx can eat up to 200 hare in
one year!

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Lynx 12

DEER MOUSE/VOLE

DEER MOUSE
0.6 cm

Front
0.6 cm

1.5 cm

Hind
1 cm

Often you will see a mark in the snow from

a deer mouse dragging their long tail.
Straddle: 3.5-5 cm
Stride: 5-13 cm

1.3 cm

Front
1.3 cm
1.5 cm

VOLE Hind
2.5 cm

A vole has a shorter tail than a mouse,

so the drag mark from the tail isn’t as prominent.
Straddle: 3 cm
Stride: 1.3-4 cm

13 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Deer Mouse/Vole

DEER MOUSE/VOLE

Deer mice are characterized by their large ears, Voles have smaller eyes and
and reddish-brown back and white belly. ears compared to the deer mouse.
The deer mouse was the model for They also have much shorter tails in comparison.
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse!

When the snow melts, you can see the tunnels that the mice have made in the snow and the ground.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Deer Mouse/Vole 14

 RED SQUIRREL

Left Front

Right Front

Stride:
13-25 cm
Right Back
Left Back

Left Front

Right Front

3.5-5.8 cm
2-3.8 cm

Left Back Right Back

Front Hind
1.3-2.5 cm 2-3.3 cm

Straddle: 8-12 cm

15 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Red Squirrel

RED SQUIRREL

Squirrels can be heard chattering to protect their territory and food caches.

Squirrels will collect up to During cold temperatures in the winter,

15,000 cones a year to get ready for winter. squirrels will live in their middens and
They collect spruce, fir and pine cones. survive on their collected food.
Squirrels make large piles of
left-over cone scales called middens.
A large midden can reach up to
5 metres wide and 1 meter deep.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Red Squirrel 16

SNOWSHOE HARE

Right
Left Back
Back

Right
Left Front
Front

Stride:
25-30 cm

Right
Left Back
Back

Right
Left Front
Front

13 cm

4.5 cm
Right
Left Back
Back
Front Hind
4 cm 9 cm
Straddle: 18-20 cm

17 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Snowshoe Hare

SNOWSHOE HARE

Snowshoe hare will grow a new coat in the summer and winter for camouflage.

A hare’s scat—like any herbivore— A snowshoe hare’s primary predator is the lynx.
are in pellets that are round. Every ten years the population of hares will peak,
Hares will also eat their scat to get leaving an abundance of food for the lynx.
all possible nutrients from their food.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Snowshoe Hare 18

WHITE-TAILED DEER & MULE DEER

Sometimes you may see the

dewclaw marks in the
snow such as
the two dots under
the hoof tracks.
Left
Front

Right
Front

White-tailed
Left Deer Stride:
Back 33-50 cm

Mule Deer
Right Stride:
Back 50-61 cm

Left
Front

Right
Front
7-9 cm

Left
Back

Right
Back

Straddle: 15.5 cm 4.5-6.5 cm

19 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | White-tailed Deer & Mule Deer

WHITE-TAILED DEER & MULE DEER

White-tailed deer have a brown rump, Mule deer have a white rump with a
with white underneath the tail. black tip on the end of their tail.
When tail is up, the white under-part looks like
a little white flag.

Members of the deer family will tear the tips off All herbivore scat will be grouped into pellets.
branches for food. This is called a browse. Deer scat is the size of chocolate covered peanuts!

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | White-tailed Deer & Mule Deer 20

MOOSE

Sometimes you may see the

dewclaw marks in the
snow such as
the two dots under
the hoof tracks.

Right
Back

Left
Back

Stride:
60-85 cm

Right
Front

Left
Front

16 cm
Right
Back

Left
Back
14 cm
Straddle: 23-26 cm

21 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Moose

MOOSE

Sometimes you can see a depression in

the snow where a moose may have made their
bed. This is called a bedding.

Members of the deer family—moose, elk and Moose scat is easy to identify.
deer—get their nutrients in the winter from It looks just like chocolate covered almonds!
branches of willows. The gnawed tip of a
branch is called a browse. The height of
the browse may help determine what
animal made it.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Moose 22

GROUSE

Right or
Left

Left or
Right

Right or
Left

Left or
Right
Stride:
7.5-15 cm

Right or
Left

3.8-5.7 cm

Left or
Right

3-4 cm
Straddle: 5-7.5 cm

23 Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Grouse

GROUSE

Ruffed grouse Spruce grouse

Scat looks like “All Bran” cereal. To insulate from the cold, grouse will dive into
the snow to make warm tunnels for themselves.

Winter Ecology Tracking Booklet | Grouse 24