Hunting is a critical aspect of any long-term survival scenario.

Quarrying game, however, is much harder than many think; here are some things to think about.

1. Tracks: When most people think of finding animals, they think of tracking, which is the science of discerning characteristics about the animal by observing its tracks. Tracking, however, is only one aspect of spoor identification, albeit an important one. By looking at an animal’s tracks, you can discern:

• The direction of travel of the animal.
• The type of animal that left the tracks.
• The approximate size and weight of the animal.
• The number of animals present in the group, if there is more than one set of tracks.
• How long ago the animal left the tracks.

All of the above might seem obvious, but for the beginner, it’s not an easy thing to determine, say, how old the tracks are. That skill takes lots of experience. More on that later…

2. Scat: Scat, or animal feces, tells much about the animal. Realize that animals must defecate as part of their digestive process, and thus leave abundant evidence of their presence. By looking and carefully observing animal scat, you can discern:

• The type of animal that left the scat.
• How long ago the animal left the scat.

Again, it takes experience to identify the above characteristics.

3. Environmental Clues: Perhaps the most underutilized aspect of spoor identification for novice hunters, experts are keen on the environmental clues that animals leave behind, such as:

• Broken tree branches that signal where an animal went off a trail.
• Evidence of an animal’s presence, such as scraped off tree bark or claw marks.
• Evidence of an animal’s den or bedding area.

Experienced hunters use these clues as well as tracks and scat to be able to arrive at a complete picture of where the animal they are looking for happens to be.

It is important to note that this is just the preliminary stage of a successful hunt.

Once you have gone through each of these steps, the real work begins and you need to take this knowledge and formulate a hunting strategy with tactics.

To learn more about hunting in a survival scenario, please check out Off the Grid News.