The pleasure we get in living with wild things feels pure and uncomplicated. In learning how to identify track and sign, we enjoy that democratic thrill, something almost anyone can have almost anywhere, something you can take up at almost any age or physical condition. We bend down to look, using our imagination, our mirror neurons, our reading glasses, matching marks and shapes to meaning and story. As hunters and gatherers, we depended on this skill. Perhaps that’s why books and emails are so familiar.

What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs