SECOND CLASS SCOUT

TRACKING Every animal traveling on land leaves tracks. Footprints, bent grass, broken twigs, chewed leaves, scat, rubbed bark, a shiny strip of slime following these and other clues can teach you much about animals. With a little luck, the tracks could lead you right to the creatures themselves, Packing is a skill you can master by doing lots of it. Practice in your yard, alongside rivers, and in parks, fields, and forests. Here's how to get started:

Find Some 'hacks to Follow Winter snow holds a surprising number of tracks. During other sea- sons, t~ the soft soil near ponds and streams. In dry country, scan the dus~ for prints and look for pebbles and brush that have been disturbed. Shdy a Sinub 'back Examine one footprint and fix its details in your mind. You might even measure it and make a sketch of it. That can help you stay with a trail even if other animals have crossed the tracks you are following. lkack Early or Late Early in the morning and late in the day, shadows cast in the prints make them easier to see.

Think Like the Animal

f you lose the track, ask yourself where you would go if you were the animal, then look in that direction. Mark the last print with a stick, then explore all around it until you find more evidence of the animal's route.

SCAT

Droppings, or scat, am evidence of an animal's diet. Break seal apd wiih a stick. Hulls of seeds, skins of bdes, and bits of leans suggest the animal is an hdivm-an animal that eats only plants. Small bones, h, and teathers might appear in the scat of cam^^-animals ht feed on other animals. Mixed scat indicates an omnhte-a species whose dimt includes both animal and plant material