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It is frequently easier to detect the tracks,
droppings and other signs of many mammals than
to see the animals themselves. However, great
care must be taken in the interpretation of
this indirect evidence. For example, a muntjac's
tracks could be confused with those of a young
fallow deer fawn at this time of the year.
However, if droppings are also found, this may
aid identification as a particular muntjac deer
tends to deposit it's droppings in the same
places and so heaps of droppings accumulate:
such is not the case with the fallow.
The search for footprints may show paths that are
in regular use, and a fence may pick up identi-
fiable hairs, such as the black and white guard
hairs of badgers. Fresh soil heaped around
the larger holes of badger setts or the smaller
holes of rabbit warrens indicates active sites,
as do fresh mole hills! Frayed trees rubbed by
deer, pine cones eaten by
squirrels, remnants of kills,
shreds of fur, or half-eaten
nuts, especially when found
with tracks,all help in the
detection of mammals, and
often suggest suitable places
to watch for animals.
Two other useful ways of
recording small mammals are
searching for remains in
discarded bottles and in
pellets cast by owls. Remnants of skulls and
teeth can, in most cases, be isolated and
precisely identified.
For the rather more experienced mammalogist, one
of the accurate ways of recording small mammals
is by the use of various traps that can be