Tracks and signs: reading the forest with a biologist

Four hours on foot in the forest, learning to read what the animals leave behind. Prints in mud and snow, scat, rub trees, claw marks, hair caught on wire, the difference between a boar wallow and a deer bed.

Why this exists

Most people who come for wildlife want to see an animal, and most evenings they do not. This morning is the other half of the subject and the half that never disappoints: the ground itself records who walked over it, and once somebody shows you how to read that, a forest stops being scenery.

What you will not do

Wait. Nothing here depends on an animal turning up, which is exactly why we run it — it is the one wildlife morning we can promise will deliver.

Pace

Slow, and short. Four kilometres in four hours, most of it standing still looking at the floor.