Animal Tracks and Signs

First published in English by Collins in 1974, this substantially revised and extended edition is one of the first three volumes of Oxford University Press's new Pocket Guide natural history series. The series fills the need for field guides for those who want to find out about the common organisms they come across during countryside excursions without having the specialist knowledge required to make detailed species identifications. All the books in the series are attractively designed and lavishly illustrated with high quality colour photographs and line drawings throughout. Animal Tracks and Signs is the only book in print that allows the reader to identify over 200 North-west European mammals and birds that have passed by from the evidence they have left behind. Whether one finds footprints, feeding damage, a skull or a hole in the ground, this book will describe how it was made and who by. A pleasure to dip into, it is also an essential tool for anyone who needs to identify remains, whether they are professional ecologists or schoolchildren collecting items for a nature table.

Animal Tracks and Signs was first published in English in the 1970s, and immediately established itself as an all-time classic. Totally unique in its accessible, down-to-earth approach and detailed coverage of more than 200 creatures, it is the only book in print that enables readers to determine which animals have passed through the countryside by examining the traces they have left behind, opening up a captivating new world that might otherwise remain unseen.

Whether following footprints in mud, sand, or snow, feeding marks on cones, nuts, trees, and animal remains; homes and hiding places above and below ground; or feathers, pellets, and droppings, readers are taught how to identify the bird or mammal that has been before them, aided by hundreds of beautiful, informative colour photographs, line drawings, and diagrams, and clear descriptions of the anatomy, behavior, movements patterns, and habitat of different species.

Quick-reference place sections compare actual-size prints, pellets, and droppings for fast identification on the move, covering such diverse wildlife as the shrew, hedgehog, fox, elk, and bear; the sparrow, kestrel, and eagle owl.

The new reissued edition includes a new Foreword by Ray Mears, who has found this book to be an invaluable point of reference throughout his career, and recommends it to students on his Bushcraft and Survival courses.

Booknews

A field guide to identifying what animal has passed by or fed from evidence it left behind. The arrangement is by footprint, feeding signs, animal remains, droppings, and other signs. Within each section, creatures are discussed from most primitive to most advanced by human reckoning; neighbor children are off the scale at one end or the other. The original Dyrespor: Fra pattedyr ofg fugle was first published in 1998 by G. E. C. Gad Publishers, Denmark. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Preben Bang is a highly respected author and wildlife expert. First published in English in the 1970s, his unique Animal Tracks and Signs text, with illustrations by Preben Dahlstrom has become an all-time natural history classic. Ray Mears is recognised throughout the world as an authority on Bushcraft and Survival. He has become a household name through his television series: Tracks, World of Survival, The Essential Guide to Rocks, Extreme Survival, Trips Money Can't Buy with Ewan McGregor, and The Real Heroes of Telemark. Ray founded Woodlore, School of Wilderness Bushcraft, in 1983 and has been teaching for the past 23 years.