Pugmark
Sign in to saveA pugmark is a footprint left by a wild animal. The distinctive pugmark of an individual species is useful for identification. "Pug" means foot in Hindi (Sanskrit पद् "pad"; Greek πούς "poús"). thumb|right|300px|An image of a thylacine pugmark Pugmark tracking is a technique used by wildlife conservationists to identify the distribution of species. For some species, such as tigers, pugmark tracking is now considered to be an unreliable method of determining an area's total animal population, leading to the rise in the use of alternative techniques to count populations, such as photographic ca
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6 sectionsContents
- Field data collection
- Technique
- Benefits as a data collection method
- See also
- References
- External links
A pugmark is a footprint left by a wild animal. The distinctive pugmark of an individual species is useful for identification. "Pug" means foot in Hindi (Sanskrit पद् "pad"; Greek πούς "poús"). thumb|right|300px|An image of a thylacine pugmark Pugmark tracking is a technique used by wildlife conservationists to identify the distribution of species. For some species, such as tigers, pugmark tracking is now considered to be an unreliable method of determining an area's total animal population, leading to the rise in the use of alternative techniques to count populations, such as photographic capture.
==Field data collection== Indian forester Saroj Raj Choudhury developed the technique of the ‘pugmark census’ in 1966 to track tigers. It involves collecting pugmark tracings and plaster casts from the field and analyzing these to determine the number, track dimensions and spatial distribution of key species.