Identify wildlife tracks in Vermont winters

Reading tracks, seeing animals

Tracks light up the woods with the stories of our wild neighbors, revealing activity of animals we seldom see. But for an experienced tracker, reading a set of tracks can feel every bit as vivid as spotting the animal. Tracks reveal the story of how the animal relates to their environment: what are they eating, where do they rest, who do they interact with, and how do they communicate? 

Fresh snowfall creates a blank canvas for animals to paint on. On your next winter walk, follow the tips in this guide to slow down, observe, and ask questions. You’ll start to notice patterns and build familiarity with your wild neighbors. Over time, you can even get to know the animals you track as individuals, with their own habits and personalities.

Follow a bounding squirrel through the woods

Looking for clues: patterns, context

When you spot a track in the snow, ask yourself:

Where is the next one?

Is there a repeating pattern, or do the marks appear more random?

Do the tracks represent one foot or all four feet of a four-legged animal?

The pattern and context provide the clues. This photo shows two animal trails.

The marks on the top are oriented in a straight line, revealing where a bounding animal landed on all four feet before leaping into the air again.

The marks on the bottom show the left-right alternating pattern of a walking or trotting animal stepping each foot down.

More clues: direction and measurement

Keep following a mystery track to reveal more answers.

Looking at this track, can you guess which direction the animal is moving?

The snow spray, and the deepest part of the track, is towards the front — in this case to the left of the image.

(This tip isn’t just about snow — check how tracks land in dirt or mud too!)

Taking measurements can help us hone in on which type of squirrel bounded through these woods. Most gray squirrel trails are wider than an adult’s bare hand (3 3/4 to 6 1/2”) while red squirrels are narrower (3 to 4 1/2”).

This trail is 2” wide, which narrows down our options: these tracks were made by a southern flying squirrel.

The southern flying squirrel’s trail has a very boxy appearance, with its front and hind feet landing at equal width because they are connected by a flap of skin (that enables it to glide).

A flying squirrel pauses for a snack

Following the trail can tell us more about the animal’s behavior. Here, a southern flying squirrel dug up a hickory nut. Flying squirrels often carry their food to a more protected spot to eat. They chew into the nut from one or more sides, leaving a characteristic smooth beveled edge.

Recent weather events can help pinpoint the work of flying squirrels, who are mainly active at night. For example, finding fresh tracks the morning after evening snow points to the work of a nocturnal animal.

Vermont has two flying squirrel species: northern and southern flying squirrels. Northern flying squirrels are more associated with coniferous forests and southern flying squirrels are associated with hardwoods, but they may even share denning cavities. They spend cold winter days cuddled up in tree dens, which can often be identified by the small scats spilling out of the bottom of the tree.

Photo of a southern flying squirrel by David Guertin in Addison County, VT, used with permission from iNaturalist under CC BY-NC.

Waddle after a porcupine

A toothsome creature

Signs of animal life can be in many parts of the landscape – even at eye level.

Here’s a colorful wildlife sign that can be hard to miss: the work of a porcupine feeding on the cambium of a yellow birch tree! The tooth marks (made by the edges of their incisors) can look surprisingly small, and are angled to either side of where the large rodent was positioned as they scraped away.

The nutrient-rich inner bark of trees, known as cambium, is an important food for porcupines. They also regularly visit hemlock trees in winter, where they nip off branches at a 45-degree angle and eat the needles.

A slow, steady walk to food

On the ground, a porcupine walking through the snow creates a sinuous trail. They move in a direct register walk (meaning they place their rear feet exactly in the tracks created by their front feet) or leave a trough in deep snow.

Porcupine trails may wind surprisingly far between denning sites and their preferred feeding trees.

Their favorite trees are often easy to pick out, because of their intense pruning work! The branches may be bare except for “pom poms” at the furthest tips, which the porcupines are too heavy to reach.

Porcupines, quilled tree pruners

The bottoms of porcupines’ feet are pebbled (like the texture of a basketball) and offer extra grip when climbing. Sometimes you can see this detail in their tracks in wet snow or silt. This feature helps the strictly herbivorous animals, who often rest and feed in trees.

A porcupine might spend days foraging in a single tree, dropping bits of branches and buds to the ground, which can attract other animals and create a hotspot for wildlife activity.

The North American porcupine is so notorious for its quills that its scientific name roughly means “animal with the irritating back.” These slow-moving, nocturnal rodents each have about 30,000 quills — a formidable defense against predators.

Photo by Roger Irwin.

Home to rest

Porcupines often set up their dens in tree cavities or rock ledges.

A woods explorer may spot an accumulation of scat spilling out of the entrance of a tree cavity, or along the bottom of rock ledges where they shelter. The pellets have a kidney-bean shape.

Photos: on the left, Sophie holds a porcupine’s scat. On the right, a porcupine’s den in Strafford, VT, photographed by Kyle Jones and used with permission from iNaturalist under CC BY-NC.