A Field Guide to Animal Tracks (Peterson Field Guides) (Paperback)

~ Olaus J. Murie (Author), Roger Tory Peterson (Editor) "WHO LIVES in the forest?..." (more)
Key Phrases: mountain phenacomys, porcupine droppings, whitetail jackrabbit, United States, Olympic Mts, Pacific Coast (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Includes descriptions of the habits, habitats, tracks, signs, and ranges of all the mamals of North America. More than 1,000 illustrations show individual tracks, different track patterns, animals in their habitats, droppings, and gnawed trees - every type of clue the tracker needs.

About the Author

Olaus J. Murie was one of America's leading mammalogists. His extensive field work ranged throughout the United States and Canada, from Labrador to the Aleutian Islands, with special concentration in the Northwest. For twenty-five years he was a field biologist with the U.S. Biological Survey, now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He also served as the director of the Wilderness Society for many years. Mr. Murie lived in Moose, Wyoming. He was the author of The Elk of North America and many articles on natural history.

Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world"s greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars, and the Peterson Field Guides® are credited with helping to set the stage for the environmental movement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Second Edition edition (January 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395910943
• ISBN-13: 978-0395910948
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #278,341 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very useful guide, October 26, 2001

By A Customer

My wife and I have found this guide to be very useful in interpreting the sign left behind by the creatures resident in our northeastern woods, not only tracks but scat as well (with hundreds of detailed drawings of scat it is as much a guide to those leavings as tracks). The extensive behavioral descriptions are equally useful. I am not clear on the basis for the criticisms contained in the other review concerning animal harassment. Dr. Murie was a dedicated conservationist and President of The Wilderness Society after his retirement from the Fish and Wildlife Service and his respect for the creatures he is describing is evident on every page. While he acknowledges that some tracks were obtained from live-trapped animals, it is clear from the book that the overwhelming mass of the data is from direct field observation from a life spent in the outdoors.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good and comprehensive guide, a little difficult, January 14, 2002

By	Jaime R. Castro Cano "Rodrigo" (Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is a good and comprehensive guide, it has a lot of animal tracks, I found it a good and complete guide, but honestly sometimes I had a lot of difficult tryng to find some kind of tracks that I found.

In my personal opinion I think that this is a very good book for experts on the field but not so good for beginners in animal tracks. And by the way it doesnt have any color illustration, and altough they are not needed I was very familiar with peterson guides and this one is a little different.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have tracking classic, March 9, 2004

By	Len McDougall "Len McDougall, Outdoor Writer" (Paradise, Michigan) - See all my reviews

When I was a kid running a trapline in northern Michigan, this was the book I carried in my rucksack. Today, more than 35 years later, I've written 2 books of my own on the subject of tracking wildlife, but this book is still on my bookshelf. Olas Murie was a true American pioneer who led the way into an area where no one else had gone before him. He established the first standards, and while modern genetic and other scientific techniques have increased our knowledge of wildlife manifold over what was known in Murie's day, it was he who laid the foundation on which the rest of us build. This book is a must-have for every tracker's library.