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Wolf Journey Chapter 5 - Humans and the Hidden Wilderness
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Scrunchy the 'Possum story as experienced and told by Chrism to be uploaded ASAP.
The Giant Turtle Song by Chrism to be uploaded ASAP.
To listen to these audio files, you may need the free RealOne Player if it's not already installed in your system. Inspirational Artwork by Joanna Colbert and Nikki.
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Introduction & Contents:
• Field Exercise 5A - Tracking the Yard
• Field Exercise 5B - Tracking the House
• Field Exercise 5C - Tracking the Mind
• Field Exercise 5D - Tracking Society
• Chapter 5 Celebration
Order a fine print - signed, numbered, limited edition on 6x9 or 8.5x11 of any of Joanna's Artwork you see.
The best approach I’ve found to gaining real knowledge and experience in nature is by returning over and over to my secret place, journaling my experiences, and looking up questions in good field guides. But underlying that process is the right attitude – an attitude of curiosity, interest, sensitivity, and love for the natural world as it was originally created.
Love of nature, like love for people, means being interested in something outside of one’s self. In nature, there is no better way to show love for creation than to go tracking. Tracking is wonderful, and it is simple. You may discover a hint to the story of what happened in nature before you got there, and it is as exciting as a mystery.
It is in the process of investigating a tracking mystery that we gain experience in nature. So take the attitude of a detective – assume nothing, but study every clue. We must ask the question that the Tracker, Tom Brown, Jr., says is sacred, "What happened here, and what does it mean?" With love and patience, we will receive the answers.
It takes many years of study to get to the point where you can read tracks to such detail that everything about its maker is revealed. However, there are many things you can learn quickly which will satisfy your thirst for tracking right away. For instance, have you ever found hawk or owl feathers lieing on the ground?
If you want to track whether a bird was killed, look at the base of the feather shafts. If you see just feather, with no evidence of other body parts nearby, and no beak-mark at the base of the shaft, then the feather probably just fell out. If there is a beak mark on the shaft, the bird may have plucked it out itself. Some birds even do this to line their own nests and to create a heater when incubating their young.
I’ve seen time and time again raptors plucking the feathers out of their prey, leaving a beak mark that can often be seen, but otherwise no damage to the prey’s feathers. I’ve seen evidence of cougars and other felines that have killed birds, having left scissor-cuts at the base of the prey’s feathers. And I’ve seen canines just munch and slobber all over the feathers of their prey. Look at the base of a feather the next time you come across one to assess how it may have died at the scene.
The death cry of the prey may have alerted even larger predators to the area, but most carnivores like to let their prey suffer for a while, perhaps to allow time for good-tasting adrenaline to pump through the muscles of the prey, or perhaps to assess how safe it will be to eat the prey right then, before deciding to kill it. Watch your cat play with a mouse before eating it to decide why this is.
Tracking is not a two-dimensional view of prints. Rather, it is a wide awareness of all that is happening in a vicinity. Use "wide-angle" vision the next time you walk into nature, and begin viewing the ground for tracks, scat, trails, and lays, as well as observing bark and fenceline barbs for tufts of fur, scrapes, nibbles, and other sign. Even the littlest, most indeterminate sign of a mammal is important
Scat is another very important sign to investigate in nature. You can know everything an animal ate by dissecting scat. You can look at books such as James Halfpenny’s A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America to try to identify the scat, but knowing simple things such as the fact the scat will be the same width as the animal’s anis can help you identify it right away.
Also, the placement of the scat is very important. For instance, coyote scat can be found along main trails, whereas fox scat is often found at the cross of two trails in my experience. Wolf scat can be found at the corner entrance to an area and landmarks bordering its area. Domestic dog scat doesn't have much fir and bones like the wild canines have. Domestic scat usually has cornmeal inside of it.
Wild canine scat also tends to have what I call a "twist-tie" at the end of it where it was squeezed out. Feline scat, however, is more chuncky and in rather perfect cubes all lined up. All cats, wild and domestic, tend to cover their scat with debris, and they leave scrape marks all around. Again, its size will tend to determine the exact species.
If you find an animal den or hole, don't stick your hand in it, or even come close if there is a chance you may get in the way of the animal's routine and scare it. Remember your awareness of hazards, and remember that as you gain more tracking skills, you will know better and better what effect you have on the animals, and what your safety level is.
If you find an animal den or hole, don't stick your hand in it, or even come close if there is a chance you may get in the way of the animal's routine and scare it. Remember your awareness of hazards, and remember that as you gain more tracking skills, you will know better and better what effect you have on the animals, and what your safety level is.
If you find those rare, textbook tracks in some mud, sand or snow, I really encourage you to grab yourself a "tracking stick" to measure the track or sign from every angle you can think of. Make a very obvious notch in your stick indicating the length of the track or sign. Then make a notch indicating the width. Be sure your stick is long enough to measure the distance between sets of tracks.
To help you remember where the tracks you found lay, take colored Popsicle sticks or cut little twigs and lay them about an inch to the outside of each track or sign you found. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see how the tracks stand out in relief once you've done this. See if you can determine whether a track is a front or rear, left or right, and what the "gait" of the set is - that is, whether it is running, walking extra slow, stalking, or moving at its "harmonic gait" - make note of these points. Even better, if you come back later, you will see how the tracks age over time, and become a better tracker as a result.
Remember what all the notches mean on your tracking sticks. Take care to make the stick a nice one that you would want to keep, especially if you have a good idea of the identity of the mammal you are tracking. Some trackers often walk with what looks like, at first impression, a nice staff with lots of cool designs on it, when in fact, it is their tracking stick, with countless notches. And they know what each one means; they know every story.
Based on the sign you found, take some time to relax and think what the "story" may have been there. Your story can be limited to the very boundaries of the track or sign you found, or you can try to include all the concentric rings that it probably caused. Maybe you can determine those effects based on other signs you find. When you come to the end of your story, leave the twigs you placed behind your tracks or sign as they are so that you can return to them over time and learn the art of aging tracks.
When you get home, take out your tracking field guides, and put a tape measure or ruler to your tracking sticks. Compare your story to the information you find in the books. It is also very wise to sketch the tracks quickly from memory, then journal the whole experience. It will make you a good tracker much more quickly.
Field Exercise 5A – Tracking The Yard
____You will have much greater success completing this chapter if there is an area in your Secret Spot where tracks regularly appear in mud, sand, or other soft surface. If you don't have such an area, go fill up a wagon or wheel barrow with sand, and then spread it a few centimeters thick along a couple of those animal trails you discovered while doing your animal forms in Chapter 4. Try putting a patch of sand in front of a possible den you may have discovered. This will make Chapter 5 a load of fun.
____As you will discover in Tom Brown's stories, "tracking" is not a two-dimensional view of prints. Rather, it is a wide awareness of all that is happening in a vicinity. Tom Brown even has a new book called "The Science and Art of Tracking - Nature's Path to Spiritual Discovery" which mentions merely 5,000 "pressure releases" (nuances of a print created by a foot/hand/appendage pushing off the ground). But instead of getting bogged down in the details, just feel inspired to go tracking and receive what nature gives you at your skill level. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you are about to accomplish . . . tracking a mammal at your Secret Spot and sharing your knowledge with friends by the end of this chapter! So, after reading, get ready as you normally do, and head out to your Secret Spot. Remember to incorporate all you've learned in previous chapters during this Field Exercise.
____Keep using your Owl Eyes when you get near your Secret Spot as you begin viewing the ground for tracks, scat, trails, and lays, and observing bark and barbs for tufts of fur, scrapes, nibbles, and other sign. We do not care what you find, even the littlest, most indeterminate sign of a mammal is fine. A dog print in the mud would be great. A puncture into leaves is super, if you imagine that a mammal created it. Your interpretation of the track or sign you find does not matter at this point. This exercise is an art. Art is open to however you want to interpret it. Of course, the more you come to know, the more accurate your interpretation will become. Just keep using your Senses Meditations, and let an attitude of thanksgiving in your heart lead you to a track or other sign of a mammal that you will be studying in this chapter. If you need to call your instructor for help, please do.
____Once you find your track or sign, take all the care in the world to leave the immediate vicinity undisturbed. Line the area that may be
affected with sticks if you need an obvious reminder where to watch your step, but remember, the story you are about to unfold may extend far to the right or left of your track or other sign. The mammal you discovered certainly had a "concentric ring" effect, as Tom Brown and Jon Young call it, as in moved through the area. In other words, it may have caused the birds to change their behavior, fly away or call out. It may have caused another mammal to hunker down, run off, or come meet it. And there are signs of all those concentric ring effects all around. Can you see them in your mind's eye if not there in physical relief?
____If you find scat, don't sniff at it. It may contain some micro-organisms that could cause you some disease. If you find an animal den or hole, don't stick your hand in it, or even come close if there is a chance you may get in the way of the animal's routine and scare it. Remember your awareness of hazards, and remember that as you gain more tracking skills, you will know better and better what effect you have on the animals, and what your safety level is.
____Take some time to choose a couple "tracking sticks" (probably not green) to measure the track or sign from every angle you can think of. Make a very obvious notch in your stick indicating the length of the track or sign. Then make a notch indicating the width. Then the depth. Try not to damage the tracks or sign as you measure them. We have smooshed many tracks in our studies, but we've come to realize that our clumsiness actually helped in the long run, because it forces us to read tracks and signs where they've been "erased". But don't force yourself to do advanced tracking before you need to.
____Again being very careful not to damage your track or sign, take little twigs and place them about an inch behind each track or sign you found. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see how the tracks stand out in relief once you've done this. Then choose a stick long enough to measure the distance between all the tracks or sign in the set you are looking at. See if you can determine whether a track is a front or rear, left or right, and what the "gait" of the set is - that is, whether it is running, walking extra slow, stalking, or moving at its "harmonic gait" - make note of these points.
____Remember what all the notches mean on your tracking sticks. Take care to make the stick a nice one that you would want to keep, especially if you have a good idea of the identity of the mammal you are tracking. After you are done using your first tracking stick in this chapter, you may want to keep it with your collection of Secret Spot memorabilia so that you can always show people the measurements and lessons of the mammal you first tracked. Some trackers often walk with what looks like, at first impression, a nice staff with lots of cool designs on it, when in fact, it is their tracking stick, with countless notches. And they know what each one means; they know every story.
____Based on the sign you found, take some time to relax and think what the "story" may have been there at your Secret Spot. Your story can be limited to the very boundaries of the track or sign you found. If you can, postulate what the "concentric ring effect" may have been, perhaps based on other signs you found, such as rabbit tracks running away from the dog tracks you were studying. When you come to the end of your story, give thanks to the real-life players in the story you've been reading, pick up your tracking stick or sticks, but leave the twigs you placed behind your tracks and sign as they are, and head on home.
____Put a tape measure or ruler to your tracking sticks. Make the heading for your journal entry today, and write down all the measurements you found. Use titles you learned by reading Tom Brown's field guide, such as length, width, depth, stride, and straddle. Go ahead and sketch the tracks quickly from memory, then journal the story you discovered today as you see it now. In your next Field Exercises, you will be sketching and journaling the same mammal in a more precise way, so for now, keep your journal entry simple if not short. Yet as always, note very briefly your experience, the weather, animals and plants.
Field Exercise 5B – Tracking The House
____Bring along your water, first aid, sanitary supplies, water, Tom Brown tracking field guide, the tracking form we've
included on the next page, your tracking sticks or tape measure, your pencils, a couple extra sheets of plain white paper and a
hard surface to write on. Off you go back to your tracks or sign at your Secret Spot.
____Fill out the tracking form ? as much as you can your Secret Spot ? especially the "arts" of tracking that focus in detail on
the track and sign you found. Do the rest back home if you like. As you are filling it out, continue marking the tracks and sign
you find at your site with twigs. The reason we are having you do this is so that you can know where they are and witness how
they age over time. When you are done with the whole chapter, go ahead and take out all the twigs except for a couple of the
best tracks or sign.
____Remember your hazards and thanksgiving and all the skills you've learned up until now while you are out there. Don't
miss all those deer looking at you from behind the bushes, laughing at you and your funny investigations into their lives.
Background:
Tracking & Birding
Source: Jon Young of the Wilderness Awareness School
6 Aspects of Tracking
4500 Pressure Releases in Tracks like words telling the whole story
Who: The Art of Identification: species, sex, individual, how old
What: The Art of Interpretation: status, health, intent, mood
Where: The Art of Trailing: recognizing sign, eliminating false trails
When: The Art of Timing: aging tracks by knowing weather, scarring, substrait
Why: The Art of Ecological Understanding: food, water, shelter, pollution
How: The Art of Imitation: understanding how animals move
Coyote scat can be found along a main trail.
Fox scat can be found at the cross of two trails.
Wolf scat can be found at the corner entrance to an area.
Dog scat doesn't have much fir and bones, more cornmeal.
Feline scat can be found under debris that it scraped over the top.
Field Exercise 5C – Tracking The Mind
Helpful resources include Mammals of the Pacific Northwest by Chris Maser, Skeletons (an Eyewitness book), Reader's
Digest Guide to Mammals, and the Golden Guide to Mammals.
____ Remember, these are priorities for your sketchings in order of importance:
Just doing a sketch, is more important than ...
Labeling every part of the specimen, is more important than ...
Drawing organically following how the specimen grew, is more important than ...
Sketching specimen parts in the correct proportions, is more important than ...
Making it lovely.
Also remember, do not erase what you've done at any point. If you want to re-
sketch it to make it look presentable, that's fine. If you don't erase your work, but instead repeat this procedure over and over
for each subsequent species, you will improve considerably as an artist.
____ Take a look at your specimen in a variety of field guides. Notice all
its body parts, colors, and patterns. Put your drawing paper on a flat surface with nothing to encumber you from sketching.
Take out only the colored pencils you know you will need, often just one color. Sharpen your chosen pencil if necessary.
____ Take away your book and the specimen itself if you have it there, then imagine:
a. Close your eyes and picture the seed or beginnings of the specimen.
b. In your "mind's eye", watch its mother birth it into the world.
c. Watch it unfold its limbs, eyes, and mouth, uttering its first cry.
d. Watch it grow into the full shape of its species.
e. Watch it play through its next seasons, growing as large as its parents.
g. Picture it standing tall, fully grown, ready to make more offspring.
h. Remember, like all things, it will deteriorate and die, but before it
does, you are going to sketch it, so open your eyes.
____ Put your pencil on the paper at the very center of gravity of the animal.
Watch your hand draw the animal's insides, then its skin and fir. Remember that it didn't grow from the outside in. Instead,
draw out from the center, and don't outline yet. Watch your hand grow its limbs and head, from the inside out along its
skeleton and veins.
____ Watch your hand make the final details, including sense organs. Add some
shading at this point, instead of outlines, for a more natural look. Take a look at your specimen in the book to review its parts,
and its patterns of growth to correct any inconsistencies. Remember, though, your specimen will normally look different from
the one in the book, because there are so many individuals of that species, and probably many varieties and sub-species, which
look different at various stages of development, including things like color & texture.
____ Label your sketch at the top, and list the resource materials you used at the
bottom. Finally, draw some habitat around the specimen, such as plants that live symbiotically with it. Write in the "scale", or
how large it is in real life.
____ Now, using your field guides, follow the directions below to draw different parts of the animal in detail. Hopefully, your
field guides will have pictures or drawings of the different parts of the animal, or perhaps you can find a carcass to draw its
parts. Label each drawing and body part names, including at least:
____Skull
____Skeleton
____Paw pads
____Tracks
____Track patterns
____Scat
____Finally, put a map of its range.
____ Just sit and think about your animal now for a while and let your body relax before continuing with this journal entry.
____ On the page after your sketch, you'll be journaling general information about your mammal, so make a title on that page.
Also, as with every journal entry, write the date. Write in any other common names that people may call the animal. Next,
begin listing information about the plant, following this order:
____ Latin Name (Genus & Species), Family, Order, Class, Phylum, Kingdom (always Plantae for plants). Take a look at the
information page on Taxonomy ? Classifying Species in your curriculum booklet to help understand this requirement. Most
field guides will tell the Latin Name, and categorize them into their families. The kingdom of all mammals is animalia, the
phylum is vertebrates, the order mammalia, but the class and family will vary. An encyclopedia might do the trick for you, or
ask your instructor for help finding this information.
____ Habitat. Where it's found, such as forest, field, wetlands, etc. Note where you found your specimen.
____ Size: Note how big it gets, depending on location and compare to the specimen tracked.
____ General Description: Describe your sketch, such as what its texture is like at different parts of the animal, what colors the
specimen contained, the best ways to positively identify it.
____ Describe how its young are created, born, and nurtured.
____ Habits: Include what aspects are similar to human traits and those of other animals; what the dangerous qualities might
be if you encountered the animal; and what the animal's gift to the ecosystem, and directly or indirectly, to humans may be.
____ Go celebrate your super tracking and research work in the best way you know how to celebrate such an accomplishment.
Whatever you choose, journal very briefly your experience, the weather, animals and plants you witnessed.
Field Exercise 5D – Tracking Society
____This Field Exercise is, simply, taking someone you know into your Secret Spot who will honor your space, and leading
them through a discovery of the animal you've been tracking. Teach them as we've taught you. So, here's how we do it. First,
identify someone who is interested, really.
____Second, arrange a time to have them meet with you for a couple hours.
____Go to your Secret Spot and prepare a story to get them interested and understanding of what they are about to experience.
Prepare where you are going to bring them, both physically and in the sense of giving them information in a way that makes
them learn things on their own.
____Practice the animal form of your animal, so that you can show them how it moved through the area. When you come back
from your Secret Spot, journal very briefly your experience, the weather, animals and plants you witnessed.
____Meet with them at the arranged time, and tell them a story, using animal forms, that explains your Secret Spot, its hazards,
its gifts, and your theme for the day: tracking.
____Lead them through the Five Arts of Tracking with the questions: Why might animals be there? When might the animal
have been there that left its mark you help your student see? Where did the animal come from, where is it going, and where is it
now? What was the animal doing where you are now tracking it? And who is this animal in detail?
____Thank them and the players in your story.
____Journal your story and the day's events.
Chapter 5 Celebration
After you've read the introductory tracking stories and information, then done the 4 Field Exercises, read this page, follow its
directions, and deliver the summary to your instructor.
____Prepare to go to your Secret Spot as you normally do, and visit it with no agenda besides having an attitude of wandering,
whether you remain in one spot or move around. Return home and complete this chapter summary.
____Complete a written Thanksgiving Address journal entry, adding the new category ANCESTORS at the end of your list,
honoring the tracks that were laid by those who came before you, and who helped bring you to this place. This category is an
extension of last chapter's new "people" entry, as we strive to remember to appreciate humans despite any grief or conflict we
may feel as a result of their effect on us in relation to our Secret Spot.
____Write a short description of your combined experiences at your Secret Spot during these Field Exercises. You may want
to describe what feelings came up for you, fears, happiness, sadness, wonder, and more. Please add here a mention as to where
you might be on the path of initiation into nature, whether it be inspiration, focus, humility, (mist of grief), service, wisdom, or
spirit. Perhaps you don't relate at all to this path, and that's fine. Instead, give us your feedback about this theory we share.
Perhaps you feel like you are in more than one of these initiation steps at the same time. Or that you skip around. That's fine,
just describe it in your entry. If you feel like you are in the mist of grief, take a look back at the essay we write about the stages
of grief in our introductory information, and try to identify and express where you are in those stages.
____Set goals for yourself regarding Tracking that you are confident you can achieve. What do you wish to learn, experience,
gain from practicing this skill?
____Note in writing anything you liked, or saw needs editing, in this chapter of the Naturalist Mentoring curriculum.
____Give the following written information to your instructor:
• Your written Thanksgiving Address
• Your journal entries from all the Field Exercises
• Your summary of experiences with this chapter (see above - feel free to edit)
• The written goals you have set for yourself
• Your written evaluation of this chapter
Index to Wolf Journey (chapters currently uploaded)
• Introduction to Part One - Skills of the Naturalist
• Chapter 1 - Your Secret Place.
• Chapter 2 - Fears & Hazards.
• Chapter 3 - Sensory Awareness.
• Chapter 4 - Sketching & Journaling.
• Introduction to Part Two - Skills of the Tracker
• Chapter 5 - Humans and the Hidden Wilderness.
• Chapter 6 - Shape Shifting.
• Chapter 7 - Mammal Mysteries.
• Chapter 8 - Bird Vocalizations.
• Introduction to Book 3 - Skills of the Herbalist
• Chapter 9 - Caretaking Nature.
• Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers.
• Chapter 30: Glossary of Terms.
• Chapter 31: Outings Checklists.
• Chapter 32: Understanding Taxonomy.
• Remaining chapters to be uploaded asap.
Wolf Journey is available free online, although donations to the WOLF Foundation - Max Davis Scholarships for earth skills education are requested with the suggested amount of $1.00 per chapter or set of recordings you utilize, with checks payable to the WOLF Foundation, c/o Scott A. Davis, CPA, 103 E Holly #401, Bellingham, WA 98225, or by calling us at 360-799-1997 with your visa or mastercard. An alternative way to contribute is to become a WOLF Booster which gives you the additional benefits of board membership and complimentary access to the Wolf Camp property on Woods Lake. The latter alternative requires completing a property use form. Books and other resources which you will need for successful completion of field exercises throughout Wolf Journey can be purchased through our camp store once it is up and running. In the meantime, we recommend purchasing through Tom & Renee Elpel's wonderful online Granny's Country Store or simply email them at orders@grannysstore.com or call 406-287-3605 to order. We offer this book series as a correspondence course for Wolf Camp alumni and as part of our Summer Camps & School Year Classes and Residential Intensives & Training Camps curricula, but if you would like an instructor to guide you while studying these skills in your own area, we recommend clicking on PrimitiveSkillsLinks.Com to find an earth skills specialist near you who can personally review your field exercises and journaling work. Other schools and outdoor instructors who would like to use this curriculum for their own classes, mentoring, etc, are free to do so. We would appreciate donations, or having your students donate, to the WOLF Foundation as described above. As a supplement to (or instead of) completing the Wolf Journey book series, we also recommend signing up for the Kamana Naturalist Training Program through the Wilderness Awareness School which inspired many of our own field exercises. They can offer academic credit, and they specialize in correspondence mentoring no matter where a student is located.
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