An updated edition of the popular RSPB guide to interpreting the signs that animals leave behind.
  
  
  
  Learning to track animals is like learning to read, but instead of reading words, the tracker reads traces. Every animal leaves traces as it passes through its habitat. By learning to interpret signs like paw prints, leftover food and scrapes in the earth, you can build the story of an animal's life and discover intriguing details and hidden meanings.
  
  
  
  Updated and refreshed for this new edition, this popular and attractively designed RSPB handbook takes a new approach to the fascinating science of nature tracking. 
  
  
  
  With detailed diagrams, hundreds of photos and easy-to-read text by nature presenter Nick Baker, this helpful guide shows you how to find and interpret the evidence animals leave behind, from a pile of mangled feathers or a bent blade of grass to a delicately nibbled mushroom or a patch of disturbed soil.
  
  
  
  Nick explains how to combine the clues you find with other signs, tracks and trails to build a profile of a huge range of species. He reveals how recent technological advances help conservationists interpret tracks and traces to deepen their understanding of the natural world and learn how we can all support nature better. And he explains how we can use some of that technology to hone our nature detective skills and demonstrates essential tracker activities, like taking a cast of a paw print and dissecting owl pellets to reveal their last meal.