Tracking is a language skill. It begins with a word, an imprint in snow or soil. Follow that track for any distance and you have completed a sentence -- an animal has traveled from here to there. Proceed farther, to where it has eaten or lain in bed, and a paragraph of life is revealed. The narrative will be interrupted as other animals cross its trail, it will speed up or slow down as the animal changes its gait, and because this is nature, it can end with a spot of blood on any page.

The more chapters of an animal's life you can read, the better you will understand the book of nature, and, not incidentally, the better hunter you will become, for in a forest all trails are connected. Take this walk with me to test you your own tracking IQ. It begins simply by opening your back door and walking to the edge of the wood.