Understand prey's habits

[auscraft]

Signs made by animals can indicate their habits same as human tracking. I will attempt to show the habits of animals as in eating and movement habits. I would recommend the book Track, Scats and other Traces as listed in the reference thread of this forum to assist the tracker.

Animals can be broken into three types of feeders: Carnivores, Herbivores and Omnivores. Each group have distinctive Habits which I willl try and catergorize. Animals share a lot of simular/common habits with each other some are:

• Most animals a wary during Feeding and Drinking
• most animals feed early morning, rest during the day and on the move agian early afternoon.
• Animals not threatened or stalking usually travell easy paths.
• Most animals need water on regular basis
• animal habits should never be taken for a certainty, climate conditions or enviromental may cause the animal to deviate from its normal routine without notice. What a animal did for 6 days in a row may not be what it does on the 7th.

As this list grows and additions made the information will get compiled and copied to the tracking group.

 

[auscraft]

Carnivores

CARNIVORES:
Are meat eaters and continuely on the move looking for their next meal.these include

• Foxes
• Dogs
• Cats
• Numbats
• Quolls
• Marsupial Moles
• Tasmanian Devil just to name a few

There are also many species of birds that are carnivores like the eagle - seagulls.

Carnivores are mostly not creatures of habit and their signs are usually found by accident. They may not frequent wartering holes on regular basis as they can get their moisture needs through the the blood of their prey.
The teeth of carnivores ARE NOTED AS BEING LONG AND POINTED ""Eye Teeth"or canines.

 

[auscraft]

Ommivores

OMNIVORES
Are animals that have a regular of meat and vegitation as a part of a staple diet.
The two most common are

• pigs
• and Human

Others include many kind of Rodents, Potaroos, Some members of the possum family, bandicoots and Rat kangaroos.

Note Pigs generally rest during the day in a shaded Den and move to water early evening. After watering will forage food most of the night.
A carcass of cattle or similar will be irresistable to wild pig which can be smelt for several kilometers and will habitually return each night for feed.

 

[auscraft]

Herbivores

HERBIVORES

Are animals that have diets of Plants, nuts, Berries and all other vegetations and are generally Browsing animals.
These browsing animals are habitual in the way they require a reasonable amount of water on a daily basis to help digest the consumption of vegetation they eat. Tracks and trails are easily found coming to and from watering holes, and easily identified in the soft muddy edges of the drinking hole.
Animals include are

• Deer
• Cattle
• Kangaroos
• Wallabys
• Horses
• Rabbits
• Sheep
• and Goats to name a few

herbivores Don't have canines but have large cheek teeth for crushing and grinding. They will be on high alert during feed/drink time on the lookout for predators before lowering head, and on the lookout when they are chewing and swallowing.

 

[Dusty Miller]

Strange to see human listed under this thread of "prey". Got a habit you can't talk about? Odd title.

 

[Templar]

From a tracking point of view they are classed as prey or chase when undertaking man tracking for SAR/Law Enforcement/Military... it's just a means of classification when looking at spoor and sign.

 

[auscraft]

No I don't eat humans , Idid not mean to imply this at all, I do not agree with eating humans by another human at all

 

[BOD]

Why not prey? I sometimes feel I am prey. And then I pray.