Trackless they say? Time for them to get out into the real world.
Some uninspired novelists from time to time talk of trackless wilderness. We can be pretty sure that these writers haven't spent much time in wilderness of any kind. On a large scale, the wildest of lands are traversed by trackways of animals, including almost everywhere, those of mankind.
On a small scale, look at any sandy ground the next time you're out
in the Chihuahuan Desert. Tracks galore! There, a paired row of dimples in the sand
with sporadic appearance of a groove between—perhaps the footprints of a kangaroo rat
with the occasional tail imprint. And over there, almost like the parallel tread marks
of a miniature tank, the mark of a darkling beetle or similar six-legged traveler. And
perhaps the pad marks of a bobcat overlapping the dot and dash of a cottontail. But it
doesn't even have to be sand. Look carefully elsewhere, and pathways of rodents
become apparent. And where vegetation is thick, perhaps even tunnels through the plant
growth.
Trackless they say? Time for them to get out into the real world.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.