Hare, rabbit, squirrel: reading hopping tracks

Hopping animals have long, strong hind legs and shorter front legs. When hopping they push off at the back, fly briefly, land at the front and pull the hind legs far forward, past the front feet. There they touch down and push off for the next hop. The result is a group of four in which the hind feet lie at the front.

How the front feet land reveals the animal group. Hares and rabbits put them down one after the other, one behind the other, often slightly offset. With the two hind feet side by side in front, this creates a Y shape. Squirrels are tree climbers; they land with both front feet at the same time side by side, as when jumping from branch to branch. With the hind feet in front, this creates a rectangle.

The faster the animal moves, the longer the leaps. A fleeing hare can make very long bounds; a hare looking calmly for food, on the other hand, hops short distances. So the gaps between the groups tell you whether the animal was relaxed or in a hurry.

First determine the direction of travel, then the species. Look for the two large, elongated prints: they lie at the front, and that is where the animal went. Then look at the small prints behind them: one behind the other like the Y, or side by side like the rectangle? That already separates hare or rabbit from squirrel.

You tell the brown hare from the rabbit by size and place. The hare's hind prints are about 5 to 6 centimetres long, clearly longer in snow with the whole sole (guide values). Rabbits are smaller, make shorter hops and live in colonies with many burrows, often in sandy soil, on banks or in parks. Hares live without a burrow in fields and at woodland edges and rest in a shallow hollow, the form.

Squirrel trails lead from tree to tree and end at the trunk. Together with feeding signs the picture becomes clear: spruce cones gnawed down to a frayed core, with a heap of scales at the foot of the trunk, and hazelnuts split cleanly into two halves. Mice, on the other hand, gnaw small, round holes in nuts.

Brown hares can transmit tularaemia. It also makes people ill, for example if they touch sick or dead animals. So you never touch dead hares and rabbits and you keep dogs away. If you find several dead animals, report it to the local hunting tenant or the veterinary office.

Young hares lie alone and motionless in a hollow during the day. They are not abandoned: the mother usually comes only once or twice a day, mainly at dusk, to suckle them, so that she does not attract predators. A young hare is not touched and not taken away. Move on at once and put your dog on the lead.

Droppings of hares, rabbits and rodents are not touched either. Wash your hands after tracking. Look after yourself in winter: a tracking walk in the snow is fun, but wet clothes and cold hands cool down quickly.

Hopping tracks are ideal for beginners and children: they are common, conspicuous and have a clear pattern. After a night of fresh snow you find them in fields, meadows, parks and gardens. Once you have correctly determined the direction of travel, you also understand other trail patterns better.

It becomes difficult in leaves, grass or very deep, loose snow where no clear groups show. Young hares and adult rabbits can hardly be told apart. And mice also hop in groups of four, only tiny ones – there a size comparison with a tape measure helps.

Hares have a clever trick: before lying down in their form, they often run back a little along their own trail and then make a long leap to the side. For a pursuer following its nose, the trail ends suddenly. For you it is an exciting puzzle – you often find the continuation a few metres to the side.

Hares and rabbits bite twigs off cleanly and at a slant with their sharp incisors, as if cut with a knife. Deer, by contrast, leave frayed edges because they lack upper incisors. So even without a print you can tell who has nibbled at a bush.