Five people knelt on the frozen banks of the Minnesota River peering closely at a curving trail of animal tracks. The mission? To determine the animal that left these prints, which paw — right, left, front or back — and whether the tracks were those of one animal or several. Measurements were taken, toes counted. The group noted shapes and relationships and looked for claws, and compared a crumbling imprint ahead of it with the illustration in the field guide. Was that a fifth toe or an incidental dent in the mud? Are skunks out and about in March? Do fishers even live in this part of Minnesota? Would you call that a chevron shape or an oval that caved in?
"It's OK to have more questions than answers," Jon Poppele said. "In fact, if you've got all the answers, that's a problem."
Questions are the heart of the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project, a group Poppele co-founded in October 2013 as a way for people to connect with nature through the ancient art of track and sign.
"The tracking project grew out of my graduate research in conservation biology," he said. "It was never this grand vision; my friend Marty Miller and I thought it would be a fun way to get outside with our friends. We picked a day, invited everyone we knew to meet at Fort Snelling [State Park], 15 people showed up, and we've been going ever since."
The tracking project has a website with a calendar of monthly meet-ups and a Facebook page where impromptu outings and related events are announced. Anyone can show up — there's no cost, no commitment and no special requirements, though a certain amount of mobility is necessary to tramp around off-trail. There's also no roster of attendees, though Poppele said between 12 and 20 people show up regularly at the Fort Snelling visitor center for monthly "dirt time" and, on alternating weekends, for an auditory lesson in bird language.
Armed with walking sticks, field guides, cameras, smartphones, rulers, painted Popsicle sticks (to help visualize the track-leaver's gait), and a motley mix of winter gear, a group of 12 on a recent meet-up split into two. "Let's go look at some poop!" set the tone for a fire hose of lighthearted learning, mind-boggling in scope and specificity.
For example:
• Antlers remove tree bark with an up-and-down motion, but deer eat bark with only an upward scrape because they have only lower incisors.
• Scat from the cat family is segmented with blunt ends.
• Dog or coyote? Dogs' toes are more splayed because their feet are weaker than coyotes', resulting in a rounder overall footprint. Coyotes' toes are held tightly at the front of an oval-shaped track; coyotes walk more on their toes, so the toes register deeper and the heel pad lighter than dogs; dogs' claws are blunt either from walking on sidewalks or because they're clipped, where coyotes' claws are sharp; dogs wander and zigzag to sniff, but coyotes are not as easily distracted. They walk in a purposeful straight line.
• Masses of what look like blue-tinged potato chips and a beer can? All signs pointed to a thirsty fisherman who caught a carp, left it on the bank whence something else ate it. And the first — and only half joking — rule of tracking: It's a raccoon until proven otherwise.
Nature centers and state parks occasionally hold one-day programs in track and sign (scat, plants chewed or disturbed, burrows, nests), Poppele said, but he believes theirs is the only ongoing group in the Midwest.
He described the tracking project as a social club for personal development, but said it's evolved into opportunities for more structured citizen science. Last summer, for example, the wildlife trackers partnered with the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in East Bethel, Minn., to survey the diversity of mammals there, and whether wolves that had largely been removed in years past, had returned.
The group also has collaborated with the National Park Service in the Minnesota Metro Otter Survey, and with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Best done in teams
A virtual world of factors plays into identifying track and sign — that's why consensus is key. "Cougar sightings usually turn out to be dogs or bobcats," Poppele said. "Even pros make these mistakes. When you find something unusual, you have to take a lot more time to look for other possibilities, additional lines of evidence. I make lots of mistakes, other people make different mistakes. That's why tracking is best practiced in teams. The data is much more reliable."
Citizen scientists can get a lot more eyes on their findings by uploading photos of tracks or sign to iNaturalist.org. Others weigh in, and when there is a consensus, an observation is labeled "research grade." iNaturalist and the various projects within that site also have moderators and curators who manage posted observations.
Poppele enjoyed a southeast Minneapolis city-kid childhood, his lifelong interest in the outdoors fanned by family camping trips and the Boy Scouts. After earning a master's degree in conservation biology, he advanced his tracking knowledge through classes, workshops and work with master tracker Jon Young.
Teaching skills
Wildlife tracking was probably the first science practiced by humans, passed down for millennia, but as hunter-gatherers died out, tracking too faced extinction. Harvard evolutionary biologist Louis Liebenberg was working with Bushmen, some of the oldest inhabitants of South Africa, in the late 1990s and realized that these brilliant naturalists' way of life and skills were not being passed on. Liebenberg developed CyberTracker Tracker Certification using a unique icon-based app to translate Bushmen's knowledge into a written résumé. By certifying their skills, indigenous trackers could get jobs with researchers and conservation programs, and skills could be taught and standardized worldwide.
There are four levels of certification (1, 2, 3 and professional) and six authorized tracking examiners in North America. In April 2016, the Minnesota group hosted an examiner. Candidates spent the better part of two days pondering the problems he'd set forth. As a result, Poppele and three others are certified at level 3, and two people at level 2.
"There's a small but growing number of opportunities to use certification in an official capacity," Poppele said. "One of the objectives of the certification program is to build recognition that it exists so when researchers are doing projects, they know they can hire high-quality field technicians."
Beyond building knowledge or a fun outing with friends, Poppele sees tracking as a way to wellness. "Our bodies and our senses are designed for interacting with nature. Our survival as a species depended on our ability to gather information about the natural world and interact successfully with it," Poppele said. "When we use our mind and body in the way it was designed, you get a sense of ease and peace."
Kirsten Welge, a regular tracking and bird language attendee, noted how wildlife skills translated to her job in health care: "I find, when I'm in a meeting, I can pay attention to what people are saying. Tracking improves my ability to focus and listen."
Sarah Barker is a freelance writer. She lives in St. Paul.
