The Marvels and Mysteries of Deer Tracks

When we think of deer tracks what usually comes to mind are heart-shaped prints like the one shown in the photo below. The paired toes together form the overall shape, and the pointed ends of the toes point forward. In tracks like the one in the photo, the ridge that runs front to back between the toes may be as important for identification as the toes themselves. In fact, the tell-tale ridge may still be visible even when most other track details have been destroyed by weathering or melting.

The specialized feet of deer are very different from those of their ancient five-toed ancestors. The two large toes that make up the print in the photo above are analogous to the third and fourth fingers of our hand, but the toe bones (analogous to our finger bones) are highly modified and are enclosed in tough, protective structures. There are two smaller toes, the dewclaws, which are analogous to our index and pinky fingers and sit higher up on the back of the leg. The innermost toe (analogous to our thumb) was completely lost in the course of evolution. You can see the arrangement of the large primary toes and the smaller dewclaws in the next photo of the front feet of a deer.

Deer hooves are superbly adapted for running and jumping. Their keratinaceous outer sheathing combines with resilient internal tissues to cushion the feet against impact. The dewclaws don’t touch the ground most of the time, but with faster movement or on softer surfaces they can make contact to provide more support. In the next photo you see tracks made by a deer moving toward the right on a relatively soft substrate at a slow gallop. There’s a front print on the left and a hind print on the right. In each track the marks made by the dewclaws sit behind the impressions of the large main toes. (You’ll notice that the dewclaws of the front foot are angled to the sides while those of the rear foot are pointed more to the front.) The feet of deer are small relative to the animal’s size and bear more weight per unit area compared to non-hoofed mammals. This is why deer tracks show up on surfaces that are too firm to reveal the traces of most other animals (a serendipitous side-effect for trackers). It’s also why deer tracks are usually deeper than the tracks of animals like coyotes and bobcats, and why deer are generally less stealthy than mammalian predators.

You can see from the photo above that the two large toes are not always held tightly together the way they are in the first image. Sometimes a “four-toed” deer print can take on a bizarre appearance. In the next photo you see a hind track which has a resemblance to the bounding pattern of a squirrel. The tips of the large toes appear rounded because their points pushed downward under the soil surface.

Here’s an image of the front track of a rapidly accelerating deer in which only the marks of the dewclaws and the tips of the large toes registered.

Even when the dewclaws don’t touch the ground the two main toes may be separated, as in the photo below of a hind foot. Deer can exert muscular control over their toes and are able to spread them when they need more support or stability.

Here’s another shot of a rear track, again with the toes separated.

In the next photo you see some deer tracks I found on a seldom used railroad line. The animal had first walked through some mud and then travelled along the railroad track. It stepped carefully on the ties, and wherever it stepped it left muddy impressions. In the photo the direction of travel is from top to bottom, and what you see are the edges of the hooves printed in mud on the wooden ties. There are two tracks partly superimposed, the front print a little ahead of (below) the rear print.

If the tracks in the previous photo are hard to understand, the next image may help. There’s a front track (at the upper left) and a rear print (at the lower right), and the direction of travel is toward the upper left. The firm sandy base prevented the deer’s hooves from sinking in, and the thin covering of loose sand recorded the track details nicely. The outer rims of the hooves show as curved grooves in the sand, but the inner parts of the hooves barely touched the surface.

Tracks like these are sometimes misidentified as bird tracks, so beware! In fact it’s important to always be fully engaged–even with deer tracks–because, as the preceding photos show, they don’t always conform to our expectations. Every once in a while, among all the typical prints, you may find some that are surprising or puzzling. If you spend some time on these, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of deer tracks, both the common ones and the not so common ones.