October 6, 2024

MyNature Animal Tracks MyNature Tree Guide MyNature Animal Tracks MyNature Fishing App

MyNature Gives Big for Earth Day

Another Nature holiday has come and gone, Earth Day 2011 is over and with it our big App give away in celebration of  “An Education in Nature”  has ended.  I have to admit I was anxious to see the results of how many people took advantage of our Earth Day special.  I can honestly say I nearly fell out of the chair this morning when I saw the results, we gave a way a grand total of 6,663 apps in just a little over a 24 hour period.  The statistics are to me totally unbelievable that so many apps were downloaded in 1 day. Here’s the breakdown.

  • MyNature Animal Tracks                                  2,177 installs
  • MyNature Tree Guide                                         2,139 installs
  • MyNature Mammal Tracks                               1,006 installs
  • Yosemite Tracks, Trees & Wildflowers            950 installs
  • Sequoia Tracks, Trees & Wildflowers                  97 installs
  • MyNature State Tree Quiz                                     294 installs

6,663 total apps installed

What makes this even more incredible is the total retail value of that final figure. On any given day our Animal Track and Tree App retail for $6.99, the new National Park Apps will be listed at $9.99 each and our Mammal Track and State Tree Quiz sell for .99 cents each.  Here’s where I say Wow…… those totals have an incredible retail value give away of $41,914.53 !!!!

Now if anyone ever asks me what I did for Earth Day 2011 I can proudly smile and state that I helped 6,663 people with an “Education in Nature”.

Happy Tracking


Happy Earth Day!

It’s here! Earth Day, and to celebrate the occasion and promote an education in Nature all our app are now free in the App Store.  Install one or all of the  MyNature Apps to learn how identify Moose tracks, Mink scat, Black Bear sign, what a Red Maples fruit looks like or how to tell the difference between an Eastern Red Cedars bark and a Tamarack trees.  Learn the differences between a Whitebark Pine and a Lodgepole Pine. Don’t forget if your ever planning a trip to Sequoia or Yosemite National Parks you’ll be happy to see we now have specific park apps to identify not only trees and tracks but over 220 wildflowers commonly found there.  Stop in pick up an app or two and help us celebrate Earth Day with an Education in Nature.

Here’s a list off the free MyNature  apps for this special day.

  • MyNature Animal Tracks & Scat
  • MyNature Tree Guide
  • MyNature State Tree Quiz
  • Yosemite Tracks, Trees & Wildflowers
  • Sequoia Tracks, Trees & Wildflowers
  • Mammal Tracks

Just click any one of the links on our homepage to download an app in iTunes.

Enjoy Earth Day!


Raccoon Tracks

One of the easiest tracks to recognize in the field are those of a Raccoon.  The front foot pictured to the left resembles your own hand with five fingers. The claws will usually show in the track but often times they don’t register. A front track of a raccoon measures approximately 2 to 2 1/2 inches long. The toes are usually splayed or spread apart in the print.

The rear or hind track measures 3 to 4 inches long and resembles a foot but a very flat foot at that. The hind foot also has five toes and the claws usually register in the track. There are very few tracks that can be confused with those of a raccoon.  We’ll save those for a rainy day.  

Happy tracking !

Tracking Tips

 One of the best places to spend some time outdoors looking for tracks is a Beaver pond. Actually an old beaver pond which the dam has broke and left a flow is even better. Dams represent the edge in the forest, an edge is where two different ecosystems meet.  Wildlife are naturally drawn to the edge of an ecosystem and spend time feeding, bedding and hunting these areas. These edges are where the majority of animal sign can be found if you take the time to look. Elevated areas like rocks and logs  in or near the waters edge are great places to find scat left by Mink, Muskrat and Otters.

This scat left by a Muskrat is a territorial marker. You can see that there is both new and old scat where he constanly freshens this scent post. You might also find a latrine area where there are piles of different aged scat, these are usually found near their core area where they spend the majority of their time.

Sign left on the trails leading to an Edge area like a Beaver Pond are also good indicators of what animals are using the area.

     This Bobcat scat on the left was found just a few feet away from the dam itself. 

This scat on the right was left on one of the trails leading to the pond by a Black Bear.

One of the best spots to look for tracks on a active beaver pond is right on the dam itself. Dams serve as a kind of natural bridge for animals to cross on. Many times the top of the dam  consists of mud placed there by beavers to reinforce the structure.  Bears, Deer, Coyotes, Fox will all utilize the top of the dam to get from one side of the pond to the other and leave their tracks there for your identification. 

Next time your on an outing try to  find the Edge whether a beaver pond, mountain meadow, stream or agricultural field and you should have no problem finding animal sign.

                                                          Happy Tracking !!

What’s A Good Track App?

As the app market expands more and more Animal Track apps are coming out. The real question is are they any good and what should they contain for content that is useful. If you were to purchase one, what would you expect to get in return for your hard earned dollar. Lets start with the number of mammals to feature. The average person roaming the woods today is more interested in larger mammals, after all those are the tracks that are most noticeable when your hiking. A rough calculation of the larger mammals of North America bigger than a Weasel would be around 45 to 50 different species and family members.  These would be the most common animals to be seen or leave sign for which anyone would be interested in identifying.  Your outdoors for a reason, your either hiking, camping, hunting or fishing, heck you may even be on a golf coarse.  The point is when you finally find a track you are curious about identifying do you want to identify it and get on with your activity or do you want to spend extra time on your smart phone wading through numerous animals that the average person will rarely find a track of.  It’s sad that everyone is on the go and it’s a hurry up let’s get where were going society but that’s the reality of it and that’s one thing a track app should do, quickly identify what you found.  Apps loaded with Polar Bears are nice but how many of you will be looking for Muskox tracks in the arctic region? Would you really take the time to differentiate between a Meadow Mouse and a Deer Mouse or would you just be content to know it’s a mouse track.  An app that contains around 50 to 60 animals for all of North America is more than sufficient.

A good app should have a search feature broken into categories and then search again by track size leaving you with 2 or 3 results to further pick from rather than 7 or more.   The main thing especially for kids is for the app to hold your attention long enough to identify an animal. If there is to much time involved in searching then it becomes a job and we want this to be quick, fun and educational after all were outdoors for a reason and it’s not to spend additional time on our phone.

The bulk of any track app should also contain digital images of tracks and the animal itself and lets not forget sound files of the vocalization of each animal.  All these features should be self contained in the app, relying on a wireless connection to access these features leaves the app useless when the majority of outdoor adventures take place where there is a lack of wireless service. If you are thinking of getting a Animal Track app then make sure that it does not rely on cell service to use.  If it doesn’t have built in digital images of what a track looks like in the wild then what good is it?

Once your app ID’s an animal it should give you some basic information on habitat and life cycle, two paragraphs maximum. Remember were outdoors having fun, you can save all the heavy reading on the animal for later when your home if you want to learn more.

Throw in a ruler feature and you have a pretty concise app, one that is accurate, searches quickly and has the right amount of content all contained in one nice neat self stored package. Keep all these in mind when you decide to take the plunge into an Animal Track app and you’ll have a more rewarding and I hope educational experience on your next outing.

So all that said what’s new from us here at MyNature. Well, we have been working on an update for the past three months to our own track app. Once the new version is released (which will still be a while) we’ll have a searchable database for the addition of scat to the app. We’ll also have additional digital images of tracks, animal gaits and sign left by each animal. We redesigned the journal page to make it more functional and are also adding some social networking features for Twitter and Facebook.  There will also be the addition of the all to popular life list to keep track of your discoveries.  Were also going to have a web based site to post your identifications to as well as  images.  With your participation we should have a very complete database to refer to for animal sign, scat and tracks of North America. Some of the new features will need a wireless service to utilize but the app and all images will still be self contained as they are now.   Don’t worry you’ll hear when the update is done we won’t forget to tell you!!

Happy Tracking!

Spring Tracks

   The last of the winter snows have disappeared and along with them went the perfect canvas for animal tracks. As I bummed as I am to lose the good tracking snow I’m very happy Spring has arrived. Along with Spring comes  mud season which not as plentiful as snow still has the ability to capture a perfect crisp outline of the animal that passed through it. I recently scouted a farm field not far from here. The great thing about the agricultural fields south of here is that they consist primarily of clay and the next best thing to Spring mud is Spring clay. I’ll probably return there tomorrow if I get a chance and do a little plaster casting of some of the tracks if the rain holds off. The best way to approach finding tracks in farm fields is to just walk the edge, there really is no need to venture any further than 10 feet from the sides of the field to find tracks. In fact most animals will be doing the same thing, just cruising the edges. Any animal that ventures out of the bordering brush will definitely leave evidence of it’s passing as long as the clay or dirt is wet. Take for instance the Weasel Tracks I found, weighing in at just under a pound this one left a very distinct track.  

    Weasels have a heel pad that is easy to recognize once you know what your looking for.  The size of the track and placement of the feet also give it away.

Farm fields really offer one of the best places to find and identify tracks. Prey animals are attracted to the crops and the carnivorous animals follow the prey so there is an abundance of sign as long as you keep your eyes to the ground.

If you don’t personally know a farmer then just stop and ask for permission if you can walk the edges of their field to do some tracking, most won’t mind as long as your respectful of the property. It’s a great way to spend some time outdoors especially with the kids and what kid wouldn’t love traipsing through the mud?    Happy Tracking !!

Sign

A lot of time when your picking your way through the woods the only evidence you find of an animals presence may just be the sign they left. Animal sign can be anything from a pile of cone scales, rubbed trees, scratchings on the ground to scat as well as countless other markings left behind. I had a moment of brain freeze the other day on one of my outings when I came across 30 to 40 small piles of animal scat left around the base of a tree. Maybe it’s age catching up with me because for several short minutes I stood there looking for tracks as to whose scat this was, totally bewildered. It’s not that I didn’t know who left it or who’s scat it was after all I have seen this 100’s of times but for the life of me I couldn’t remember. I regained my composure and put the pieces of all the clues together, no tracks around, fresh and older scat in the same spot which meant the animal frequents here often and a large branch overhead.  Yes, it was a Turkey roost I had found. No tracks around meant what ever was visiting here flew in and perched on the overhead branch, the shape of the scat some in the tell tale “J” shape and the size of the piles were all pointing to Turkey.

I went on my way content in knowing that the onset of Alzheimer’s has started……..wait….. what was I writing about?  Oh yeah, Turkeys!! So I went on my way thinking there are probably a lot of people that come across sign like this and may not have a clue as to what animal left it. If you take a few minutes and study the area and the clues left you can usually narrow it down to 1 or 2 animals.  You don’t always need a track to identify an animal if you know the sign they leave and looking for animal sign can be just as rewarding as looking for the tracks they leave. The next time I have brain freeze I won’t get frustrated I’ll take it for what it is, a chance to discover things all over again.

Happy Tracking!!

2 days left on the Christmas App special

Times running out on our special Christmas sale for the MyNature Animal Track App. Hurry and get yours today at our discounted holiday pricing!!