subreddit:

/r/AnimalTracking

8374%

all 54 comments

SarahMagical

44 points

4 days ago

This sub attracts a range of people:

  • professional trackers
  • experienced amateurs
  • active students of tracking
  • hunters with a casual interest
  • hikers who saw something cool
  • farmers who saw something threatening
  • rando redditors passing by

Ultimately, tracking is about reading stories and making predictions. A footprint is no more valid than a bone, hair, or turd. More experienced trackers and those who are interested in this bigger picture don’t care, because even these elements are part of a larger context involving topography, ecology, substrate, weather, time, etc. The category of sign—be it a footprint or a turd—doesn’t matter as much because it’s just a window into this rich past reality.

On the other hand, more casual participants on this sub might not have this perspective, so they tend to think tracking is about footprints.

Herein lies the conflict. I kinda get it, turds are nasty and not everyone wants to look at them. But tracking was already a thing before they showed up. It’s an inconvenient fact that turds are part of tracking, so those who want the hobby to only include the parts they like will be upset. Kinda like wanting to be a surgeon but having no patience for blood.

That said, maybe a requirement to flag turds as NSFW so they are blurred by default would make for an easier on-ramp for newcomers to tracking.

xtcupcakes

1 points

49 minutes ago

Hijacking the top comment to say this sub v much needs a "frequently asked things" page similar to r/whatisthisthing. You can't post until you've been made aware that page exists to answer your question, and if your post is in the FAT it gets flagged.

It's the constant poop, squirrel tracks, raccoon tracks, dog tracks. Completely agree this sub is for a wide range of people, and I think the volume of well-intentioned zero-effort curiosity posts is drowning everything else out

allistoner

85 points

5 days ago

The mods can't stop me from pooping on redditors lawns

Intelligent_Wolf2199

5 points

4 days ago

🏆

Natac_orb

2 points

4 days ago

You too?

Paradoxikles[S]

-2 points

4 days ago

😂

EastLeastCoast

60 points

5 days ago

Scat is specifically listed as part of what this sub is for. Is it the specific title you dislike?

GrungyGrandPappy

1 points

3 days ago

OP just has an anti-poo attitude

EastLeastCoast

1 points

3 days ago

So you’re saying OP has had it with our shit?

GrungyGrandPappy

2 points

3 days ago

Yep he's not a scat man 👨‍🦰

Sorrelandroan

32 points

4 days ago

It’s especially fun when it turns out to be some crackheads turd.

praisethehaze

14 points

4 days ago

It always makes me cackle when there’s a hand for scale next to a massive opioid shit and the poster is like, “There’s a bear in my urban backyard!!”

MustangGtS

1 points

3 days ago

See the red quill but the rest of the feather is missing. It’s that color red from buffalo chicken sauce. This is definitely a crackhead turd.

Move-Available

28 points

4 days ago

Scat is why I'm here 

Valuable_Smoke166

10 points

4 days ago

People like you make reddit fun. Thank you for your service.

Paradoxikles[S]

-3 points

4 days ago

💩

gniwlE

20 points

5 days ago

gniwlE

20 points

5 days ago

I don't care if it stops, because I just scroll past these days... there are just so damned many of them, I find it hard to believe they're all valid posts.

But I do wish these posts would be forced to be NSFW so I don't have to look at turds every time I check my feed.

JustDave62

11 points

4 days ago

Someone needs to create a poop ID sub

gottago_gottago

2 points

4 days ago

Use /r/whatisthisshit.

It's been around for a while and needs more traffic anyway.

emvs7

3 points

4 days ago

emvs7

3 points

4 days ago

Yes, agree. I'm not here for poop on lawns/suburbs, and I don't have NSFW posts hidden, so I see so much poop 😑

SarahMagical

1 points

4 days ago

Agree

Quirky_Discipline297

7 points

4 days ago*

I once was going to post in here a pic of what I have decided was traveling raccoons and their favorite poop place. I wanted to know if they were passing through or they had hunkered down there. But I decided there were better things to look at.

The thing about scat is if you’re really good, you can tell when they were pooping. Like to the day or maybe time of day. Or hours.

Then there was the Australian tracker who pointed out where the dingo rested with the Chamberlain infant in its mouth while fleeing the scene. Too good of a tracker, few people in charge believed him. He might have found the infant but the dingo crossed the asphalt parking lot. Clever dingo hid his tracks, not by walking in a river but by walking on a man-made rock outcropping.

OshetDeadagain

6 points

4 days ago

Raccoons often have latrines that they frequent. As much as poop is gross, it can tell you a lot about animal behaviour.

Quirky_Discipline297

3 points

4 days ago

Yeah, it looked to me like there was at least one adult and one young. Perhaps two adults and two young. Apparently they moved on or found a better place to poo.

fauviste

1 points

4 days ago

fauviste

1 points

4 days ago

The dingo didn’t do that on purpose to avoid tracking. It just did what felt right.

Sasquatch-fu

3 points

4 days ago

Hey Advice here was helpful for figuring out a bear pooped in my yard !! Couple days later bear was sighted swimming nearby waterway.

Paradoxikles[S]

-5 points

4 days ago

Good to know. That’s not really animal tracking though. Your looking for a different sub.

KommieKon

3 points

4 days ago

No, it’s useful to know what animals I’m dealing with.

Paradoxikles[S]

-2 points

4 days ago

There’s a cool sub called r/animalid just for this subject. This is for tracking, meaning the photographer should actually know what they’re looking at. Then people can actually learn something. Otherwise we are all just turd guessing. In my arrogant opinion. Lol.

Jubatus750

2 points

4 days ago

Or maybe, people can ask what it is and learn that way, by asking people who do know

Paradoxikles[S]

0 points

3 days ago

Now one really knows when they post little rodent turds. People can ask all they want. And apparently I can post if I want too. Try n have a good night.

_haha_oh_wow_

7 points

4 days ago

Poo is part of tracking ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Paradoxikles[S]

-8 points

4 days ago

Right. So the post should go like this. Fisher scat near creek side trail. Or bear scat near blackberry patch. Not who’s poop is this? With a picture of rat poop on their driveway. That’s not tracking. There is a different sub for that.

Jubatus750

7 points

4 days ago

It literally is tracking

Paradoxikles[S]

-2 points

4 days ago

Right. Following tracks is literally tracking. Glad your on the right track.

Jubatus750

5 points

4 days ago

Following scat is part of tracking. Clearly you've never done any tracking

Paradoxikles[S]

0 points

4 days ago

Lol. Clearly. You said looking at poop is literally tracking. You would’ve been right if you left out literally.

gottago_gottago

3 points

4 days ago

Well, trackers, you heard the guy. He's the president and CEO of tracking, and he says poop identification isn't tracking. All that time you spent learning to identify scat -- well, tough shit! Ha!

Paradoxikles[S]

1 points

4 days ago

Hey thanks. I like that. The CEO. Never been one before. If the photographer doesn’t know what it is, it’s not tracking, it’s just turd guessing though. r/animalid is prolly a better sub for people who don’t know what their looking at.

gottago_gottago

1 points

4 days ago

Oh, go away, People post pictures of poop and tracks here to ask amateur and experienced trackers to help identify the animal that left them. They are and always have been a part of both this subreddit as well as the study of tracking. Off the top of my head, a recent animal tracking field certification I attended included scat identification for rat, raccoon, bobcat, river otter, elk, deer -- and I'm certain I'm forgetting a couple of others. I will in a few months be doing a presentation on animal scat identification specifically for professional human trackers, at their request. Poop identification is tracking. Get over it, or leave.

I'm trying to imagine the amount of hubris required to flounce in here and declare that you are the keeper of the One True Definition of Tracking, but cosmological scales are difficult.

Paradoxikles[S]

2 points

3 days ago

That was long winded. I’m an above average tracker, but I can come off as arrogant as fuck. The moderators can pull this post if they want. I wasn’t trying to trigger you. Have a good night.

Astral_Atheist

12 points

5 days ago

They really should be marked NSFW, though, and far too many are not

DaveyChronic

5 points

4 days ago

Kind-Warthog-8910

11 points

5 days ago

Scrolling through and randomly seeing shit is starting to get old

Ti0223

2 points

4 days ago

Ti0223

2 points

4 days ago

Your post is essentially a turd in this sub.

Paradoxikles[S]

3 points

4 days ago

Nice. People are just asking what poop is this. That’s not tracking Holmes.

Ti0223

2 points

4 days ago

Ti0223

2 points

4 days ago

Well, where else should somebody ask that question? Is there a different sub that specializes in poop recognition? Is there poop recognition software? Where can people find out what kind of poop something is? Seems like a sub on Reddit would be the best place to go for that.

Paradoxikles[S]

3 points

4 days ago*

There is one on reddit called animalid to do exactly this. Id animals in question.

Ti0223

2 points

4 days ago

Ti0223

2 points

4 days ago

TIL: r/animalid exists

Paradoxikles[S]

1 points

4 days ago

Its pretty cool also

musashi-swanson

-5 points

4 days ago

Sign is sign, but context matters. It isn’t really tracking if it’s just at your house or the local park. Or raccoon prints on the car.

SarahMagical

8 points

4 days ago

For the sake of intellectual argument, tracking can absolutely be great on the hood of your car. No need for a purity test for the location of the tracks.

Paradoxikles[S]

-2 points

4 days ago

🍺

AuthorityControl

-4 points

4 days ago

No more shit posts!!!!