Customer Reviews

National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Animal Tracks (The Audubon Society Pocket Guides)

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I fount this a very well Illustrated book, the pictures are incredible, and I liked the way to find the tracks they are located int the top corner of the book so when you move quickly among pages you can easily find any track...

Considering that this is a pocket guide, it is very complete, I found it very well for beginners, because it is not complicated to locate and identify tracks.

"There is no place in North American that is without mammals. This guide is intended to help you discover and enjoy the fascinating creatures that share our continent" (p. 7).

Unfortunately, you can't tell from the title that this is a book on MAMMAL tracks, not ANIMAL tracks. This isn't a problem, unless you are expecting to identify frog, pheasant, or duck tracks, or even snakes slithering in the sand.

And this statement? "This guide covers 80 of the most common mammals found in North America whose signs you would be most likely to see" (p. 6).

So... likely to see? Caribou, mountain goat, marten, fisher, gray wolf (in 1993, wolves were only in Alaska, Minnesota, the northern tip of Montana, and Canada),... you can sense that some of these mammals and their tracks are in this book because of their "charismatic megafauna" status. The majority of readers will probably use it for identifying the tracks of mesopredators like raccoons, skunks, and the commoner mustelids, as well as rabbits, squirrels, and other rodents.

I did like the introductory comments about tracks and tracking, and each species has a full page, color illustration of the species with a pen and ink drawing of the tracks, droppings, or other identifiable symbol (casts, marks left on trees, den).

The serious tracker would probably want to obtain Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks and Scats and Tracks of North America: A Field Guide to the Signs of Nearly 150 Wildlife Species (Scats and Tracks Series). Jim Halfpenny discusses tracks, tracking, and track interpretation in great detail in A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America.

I found this small inexpensive book a worthwile purchase. The drawings for tracks were't very informative, however pictures of the species are excellent. With the brief descriptions of the animals reads more like a pocket field guide than a tracking manual.

I found this small inexpensive book a worthwile purchase. The drawings for tracks were't very informative, however pictures of the species are excellent. With the brief descriptions of the animals reads more like a pocket field guide than a tracking manual.