If you are on a hunting expedition, fresh footprints will help you to catch your prey soon. But you don’t necessarily need to be a detective or a hunter to track footprints. We all face situations like when our dog is missing, or someone’s child fails to follow the path and is lost somewhere. In this horrible situation, stop panicking and look for any signs of footprints, one of the best tracking methods.
You can say that the footprint is fresh if it has sharp and defined edges. As time passes, environmental factors such as wind, temperature, rain, and snow will gradually smudge the outline of the footprints. The stuff found along the trail also helps to indicate the age of the foot impressions.
It is not only the sharpness of edges that define a fresh footprint. Some various conditions and factors are observed in depth and analyzed to estimate how old the track is. Let us discuss all of these factors one by one in our article.
Signs Of A Fresh Footprint
Sharp Cut Edges
The print is fresh if you see a footprint with clearly defined edges (outline). Distinctly dut edges are the first and foremost sign of a new foot impression.
A fantastic tip you can apply to detect how fresh a footprint is by making a new footprint next to the original one. The difference between the two will give you a handsome clue about the age of the track you are tracking.
One more option is to wait for some time to see when exactly your new footprint starts looking like the original one. This method can help you if the region in which you are tracking has relatively stable weather conditions. For example, it will not work in a desert where it is difficult to say when the wind has eroded sand, immediately after trail formation or after some time.
Bulging Mud Balls Around Footprints
One of the signs of a fresh footprint is the observation of unsettled bulging mud balls and cracks around the edges of the print. Different states of these protruded balls of mud show how much the natural environmental factors have affected the track and for how long.
The footprint is very fresh if you see tiny flakes of mud falling off the mud balls and cracks into the depth of the print. Also, if the color and texture of the soil of these balls are just the same as that of the foot mark, the chances are the trail is very fresh. The mud will have dried and had lighter color elevated cracked soil balls at the edges for older footprints.
Environmental Factors Showing Fresh Footprints
You have to be logical and a tremendous observant to find clues from the environment to tell about the age of a footprint.
Windy Weather
If the weather was windy yesterday, and you don’t see any debris inside the footmark, it tells that the footprints are fresh because they are made today when it is calm.
Hot Weather
Footprints are fresh if the soil around them is not much dried due to high temperatures in the hot season. You can conclude about the age of the print by considering its depth also. If the footprint is deep, it means the target was here in the night. The reason is, the soil was moist and soft in the night because of the dew and went deeper when the target walked by. The ground won’t go much deeper in the daytime because it will dry up quickly due to hotness.
Rain
Water can readily wash away the footmarks, especially in the sand. So if it had rained yesterday and the footprints are still prominent, they are fresh and formed today after the rain stopped. In muddy regions, you can compare the water present in the tread to the water in the vicinity. If the footprints are just moist and have no stagnant water, they are very brand new.
Freezing Temperatures
In the freezing mornings, you should check for the presence of crystals in the footsteps. Their absence means they are fresh and formed in the afternoon or evening today, not in the morning.
Logical Factors
Spider’s Web On The Footprints
If an unbroken spider web is visible over the mark, it implies that the track was made before evening because spiders tend to spin their webs in the evenings. Genius logic!
State Of Side Stuff
Your target may have left traces that help you tons in determining how long ago it was here. To get the most out of those traces, you must have excellent observation and logical reasoning.
Look for some papers found here and there in the vicinity of the trail. You can roughly calculate when the target was here by observing the paper’s color and dust over it. For instance, it was a windy morning, but now the weather is calm, and the paper doesn’t have any noticeable debris or sand. It indicates that the footprints are made after the air went calm.
Condition of Droppings of The Target
Droppings or excreta of the target are good indicators of whether the trail is fresh or old. Very dried and cracked droppings prove that the target was not here recently, and the footprints are not new. But keep the weather condition also in the count because if it is too hot, the droppings may get dried very soon.
Conclusion
Tracking a target with footprints is an art that requires excellent observation skills. By keeping a keen eye on the edges of the footmarks, weather situations, and intellectual factors, you can tell if the footprints are fresh or not.
Whether you are on an animal hunting expedition, researcher, or a just-for-fun Sherlock Homes, you can calculate the footprints’ age by the tricks mentioned above and reach your target soon. Lastly, you should look like a pro tracker so, don’t forget to take your magnifying lens with you!
