Casting Animal Tracks

This is a track cast we made last week. It's not the best casting job and I think you can tell it's our first. The children D spotted a track in the backyard and I decided it would be great to cast it. We used a round, cardboard food container (cornmeal) and Plaster of Paris. We removed the bottom of the cornmeal container, making it a tube, and pushed it into the dirt around the track. Then, we poured the mixed Plaster of Paris into the tube. Next, we waited for the plaster to solidify. Very easy. Unfortunately, pebbles around the track and too much water in our Plaster of Paris messed our cast up a bit, but the cast was good enough to see the toes and foot pad and identify the animal. (Click on the photo to see notes marking the toes and foot pad.)

Our track was from a cat. Here's a good site to help you distinguish canine and feline tracks. At the same site, you can learn to identify other mammal tracks.

Animal track casting is fun and was a nice nature study activity. After the casting, we added mammal track sketches to our nature journals.

Here is a pdf on casting tracks. Here is an animal tracks matching game. Here is an animal track guide.