Tracks and signs: who passed by before you?

Two or three days after Two or three days after a spell of snow or rain. The ground holds the print without it being washed out, and the animals have had time to pass again.

Hooves, pads, hands Hooves for unguligrades, which walk on the tips of their hooves, pads for digitigrades, which walk on their toes, hands for plantigrades, which walk on the soles of their feet. It is the first question to ask in front of a track.

At its greatest length, excluding claws At its greatest length excluding claws, and at its greatest width. Size varies with the ground, age, sex, speed and type of movement: it points you in a direction, it never settles the question on its own.

No, there is a risk of parasites No. Smell is sometimes a good criterion, but the risk of parasites is not worth the information. Nor do you touch it with bare hands.

The set of four prints The set of four prints. The distance between two prints is the stride. Their positions relative to each other give the gait: walk, trot, run, bound.

Two Two. Sometimes four on soft ground, or if the animal is running and jumping: the dewclaws then mark behind the two main toes.

Four visible toes, sometimes two Four visible toes, sometimes only two on hard ground. A print eight to twelve centimetres wide, unlike any other here.

Dog and fox Dog and fox. If a line drawn between the outer pads clearly cuts through the central pads, it is a dog. If it does not, it is a fox.

A lynx A lynx. Six to eight centimetres, no claws since they are retractile. Below five centimetres across, you are dealing with a cat, wild or domestic.

The badger The badger. Four and a half to seven centimetres at the front, four to six at the back.

Its two toes of unequal size The asymmetry. In the roe deer and the red deer, the two toes are the same size and the edge is rounded. In the chamois and the ibex, the two toes are unequal and the edge is concave or flat.

Hair: pine marten. No hair: stone marten Hair marks are the signature of the pine marten, a forest animal. The stone marten, which lives closer to buildings, leaves a bare print. Both measure about three centimetres by three and a half to four.

Size Size. In both, the front and back feet are the same size and hair is visible. The larger print is the hare's: three to three and a half centimetres by four to five.

The top four The top four. Three to three and a half centimetres: a discreet print, easily mistaken for a cat's.

Webbing Webbing. Four toes at the front, five at the back, and visible webbing. The beaver is the largest: up to seventeen centimetres on the hind foot.

The wild boar The wild boar. The content is mostly plant matter, with insects and hair.

The stoat The stoat. The weasel does the same, but smaller: two and a half to five centimetres. Content: mostly hair, sometimes small bones, feathers, berries.

The red fox The red fox. Five to ten centimetres, variable content, with lots of berries in summer and autumn. It often breaks into pieces.

The roe deer The roe deer. Below eight millimetres across, you move into small mammals.

How it is folded How it is folded. Pine marten: often only one tapered end, tightly folded into a horseshoe, one point two to one point five centimetres across. Stone marten: one or two tapered ends, barely folded, thinner.

The otter The otter. Three to five centimetres, shapeless masses rather than formed droppings.

A small point at the end of some herbivore droppings A small point at the end of the dropping. It is found in the chamois, the ibex, sheep, goats, and often the red deer.

The hare The hare, brown or mountain. One and a half to two centimetres, coarse plant content. The rabbit leaves smaller, darker droppings.

Ibex larger The ibex, like goats and sheep, leaves droppings of one and a half to one point eight centimetres. The chamois stays between seven millimetres and one and a half centimetres.

The lynx The lynx. It is often the only sign it leaves: in the Jura, you read this cat far more often than you see it.

What a bird of prey regurgitates What the bird regurgitates after digestion: hair, bones, remains of small mammals. It is not a dropping, and it is the only way to know what a bird of prey has eaten without ever seeing it hunt.

The barn owl The barn owl. Three to eight centimetres, black when fresh and then grey, and the bones barely show on the surface when the pellet is fresh.

The tawny owl The tawny owl. Three and a half to six centimetres, dark grey, lumpy surface where bones often show. The long-eared owl leaves a light grey pellet with a fairly smooth surface, under spruces and at forest edges.

The vole has flat, zigzag teeth with no roots No roots, and zigzag patterns in the vole. Mice and wood mice have rooted, cusped cheek teeth, like ours.

A flat skull, small pointed teeth in a continuous row, no cheekbone arch Flat, oblong skull, small pointed teeth in a continuous row, no cheekbone arch. It is an insectivore, not a rodent: no large incisors and no gap between the teeth.

The eagle owl The eagle owl. It is the largest of our pellets, and its content is on the scale of the bird.

The little owl The little owl. Very varied content: rodent hair and bones in winter, lots of insects, earthworm and plant remains in summer, at the foot of old buildings, hollow trees and pollarded trees.