Length animal trails in the snowy forest. Where do animal trails lead?
Where do animal trails lead?
Various animals, invertebrates and vertebrates, moving for a long time in the same directions, form trails. Below we will talk mainly about the paths of animals, as the most common and noticeable. It is with them that the tracker has to deal.
The purpose of the trails is different. Usually trails are in one way or another connected with the nutrition of the animals that build them and who use them.
Many have seen clean, clearly visible paths going in different directions from the cone-shaped anthill of the red wood ant. You can observe how ants hastily and anxiously run along them, either singly, or in groups, or in a continuous stream in one and the other direction, often with prey or with pieces of dry wood twigs, which serve as building material for repairing the anthill. Black garden ants make the same paths. Their underground structures have an exit to the outside in the form of a hole at the top of a cone-shaped ejection of earth. Sometimes such a hole even happens in asphalt. Noticeable paths go from it - clean, as if swept, ribbons on the surface of the soil, and sometimes on the surface of the asphalt. At some distance from the hole, the paths become less clear and then disappear.
The most common, numerous and visible trails are those of mammals. A dense network of paths on the surface of the soil, as well as in its depths, is made by mouse-like rodents, for example, various types of voles, mice, lemmings, etc. In winter, such paths are built by the same rodents on the surface of the soil under the cover of snow, as well as in the snow itself. thicker.
Mole holes, which sometimes densely penetrate the surface layer of the earth, are essentially underground paths that are used by their owner primarily for collecting food - earthworms, insect larvae, etc. In winter, moles also dig holes in the snow. The water rat, or water vole, also moves through burrows that it makes in the soil. These holes serve her to search for food, but unlike the mole, she uses plant food.
Where there are many animals, there are always many paths. The larger the animals that live in a given area, the more noticeable the trails. Most of them are short - 50-100, less often 200 m. Their ends diverge, like the branches of a spreading tree, and disappear.
Typically, trails are formed when animals approach from their overnight or resting places to their feeding areas. During grazing, the animals no longer adhere to a certain direction and the trail disappears. Badgers, marmots, gophers, gerbils and some other animals that dig permanent shelters in the ground - more or less long holes with chambers for various purposes, set out from their holes in search of food along paths that they gradually trample. At some distance from the entrance to the hole, the paths branch, become inconspicuous and then disappear. In addition to these paths, some animals that have shelters in the ground, for example, badgers and raccoon dogs, have paths leading from the hole to the “latrines”, which they systematically visit and where their droppings accumulate.
Many animals, especially vertebrates, are characterized by seasonal migrations. But fish, naturally, do not leave trails during migration, just like birds and whales. Amphibians and reptiles, apparently, do not undertake long seasonal migrations, and those that are characterized by migration (for example, sea turtles) also do not leave trails. Invertebrates, primarily some insects, can make long migrations and can be detected visually in flight. But when they sit down to eat, they leave traces (gnaws, droppings), like, for example, locusts. After migrating butterflies rest, their wings are usually left behind, as many of them are eaten by birds and other animals.
Seasonal migrations of animals usually take place along certain routes, where trails are formed. In Africa, elephant migrations have passed through some of the same places for hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years, as can be judged by the depth of the paths and the hardness of the soil in which they are laid. By the way, by laying paths in the forest, elephants facilitate the penetration and movement of many small and large ungulates, which at the same time support and deepen the paths. Elephants play the same role in dense tall grasslands. African ungulates also migrate.
In northern Europe, Asia and America, reindeer are known for their seasonal migrations. Their migration routes are usually the same from year to year. In some places they are wide, in others narrow, but within the more or less wide migration routes there are paths in places where there are fewer obstacles and better soil for walking.
The same can be said about the massive seasonal migrations of saiga antelopes.
In our forests there are long animal trails that have existed and been used for tens and hundreds of years. They lead, for example, to natural salt licks. In dry areas, such trails are laid to convenient watering holes.
Sometimes, following a pass in a mountainous area, a person encounters an animal trail, the direction of which initially generally coincides with the direction he has taken. Walking along an animal trail is much easier than walking on virgin soil, and a person takes it. Then, at some point, the path unexpectedly turns sharply and it may seem to the traveler that it has not gone where he wants, not to the pass. He leaves the path in order to maintain the direction he needs, and usually soon ends up in an impassable thicket, a swamp, or encounters another obstacle. If he has enough prudence and experience, he again goes out onto the animal path and safely reaches the pass. A change in the direction of an animal trail is usually due to the fact that it bypassed some obstacle here.
Once, while conducting research in the extreme southwest of the Primorsky Territory, we needed to move from the Ananyevka river basin to the river basin. Mountain. To do this, it was necessary to cross a watershed with a high rocky ridge. Knowing from local hunters that it is possible to cross the watershed only in one place, we tried for a long time and unsuccessfully to find this place, but constantly came across insurmountable, almost vertical rocks. Only by using the sika deer trail did we manage to find the desired passage.
In autumn, many forest animals, in preparation for winter, try to accumulate more fat. This is especially important for those of them that spend the cold season in hibernation. For example, in the south of the Far East, brown bears feed in the summer on berry fields in the highlands of Sikhote-Alin. Then they descend into cedar and oak forests, where they fatten up for 1.5 - 2 months. Animals walk slowly to feeding areas, using short sections of trails, looking for those areas of the forest that are especially rich in food as they go. Several adult individuals, mothers and cubs can gather here. The distribution of bears among individual areas - the territoriality inherent in bears at other times of the year - is disrupted during this period. The animals do not show aggression towards each other, they establish priority for the right to have the most feeding place, and try to avoid each other while being nearby at the same time.
In deep autumn or early winter, with the onset of cold weather or with the establishment of deep snow cover, the animals unanimously return to the upper belt of the mountains, to the area of selected and pre-prepared dens, within a few days. At this time, bears walk along paths that take the shortest route to the den area. Other animals also move along these paths throughout the year.
Paths are no less important in the life of large predators that do not hibernate during the winter. Thus, according to the observations of one of the authors, D. G. Pikunov, tigers, regardless of age and gender, in 80 - 90% of cases lay their routes along roads or along old animal trails. Only when hunting can they move outside the trails. However, tigers prefer to search for their victims while moving along trails. Sometimes certain sections of the trail are used by only one animal. In particular, this is the case where the predator passes many times to lie down or take cover. Along other paths, stretching, for example, along a long ravine or watershed ridge, a male and a female with tiger cubs walk. A single female walks several kilometers behind them. Sometimes a young male appears on the same path, but he tries to avoid meeting an adult male.
For tigers, which lead a mostly solitary lifestyle, the main purpose of the trails is indirect communication between individuals. They also need trails in order to conveniently approach feeding areas, watering places, resting places, etc. For animals leading a herd lifestyle, the main purpose of trails is to serve as a convenient way to satisfy their vital needs (grazing, watering holes, salt licks, rutting areas).
It is known that many animals, especially in winter, love to walk along roads and paths made by humans. However, these human paths are based on animal paths. They were initially laid by animals in places that were most convenient for movement, rich in food, watering holes, mud baths, well blown by winds, and where there were fewer midges. These places are also convenient for nests, shelters, and dens necessary for breeding offspring. Then a man came to these places, he hunted, fished, and engaged in other crafts. The paths became, as it were, no longer animal, but human. Then the path turned into a road along which you could move on a sleigh or cart.
There are numerous paths that a female boar with piglets makes from the hain to the feeding places, to the stream from which they drink. In the habitats of wild boars there are trees they love, on which they itch. These “combs” can be used by wild boars for many years and change greatly as a result (see Fig. 99). Well-marked paths lead to them.
Sometimes temporary paths are trampled by a bear, which, having killed a large animal or found carrion, walks towards the prey until it eats it all (see Fig. 115).
Seasonal migrations are vital for animals both for food and for breeding. If they are deprived of their ability to migrate, this could lead to their extinction. However, sometimes it happens that people, by constructing roads, oil and gas pipelines, block the migration routes of animals. This, for example, happened during the construction of roads and canals that crossed the migration routes of saigas. The needs of animals were not taken into account during the construction of the BAM. Correcting such mistakes is more difficult than preventing them, but they must be corrected in the name of preserving nature.
When traveling through wild and sparsely populated (by humans) places, you need to learn how to use animal trails.
Who do you think laid paths or roads for camel caravans in the deserts? And in general, how did the caravaners navigate the desert among the constantly changing dunes? It turns out everything is very simple. The caravan necessarily included several donkey guides, who led both the camel caravans and the caravaners themselves to the nearest city, well or oasis along the way. First, the donkeys were led along the caravan route by force, and then the donkeys themselves walked this route along the shortest and most convenient path.
When traveling through wild and sparsely populated (by humans) places, you need to learn how to use animal trails. Instead of breaking your legs through bushes and windfalls, it’s easier to find a suitable path in accordance with the terrain and get where you need to go without any problems. And this applies not only to movement in the taiga, but also in any other wild area. Local animals: hares, deer, wild boars, bears and others are well familiar with the area where they live and over the years have laid their paths in the most convenient places for movement. Along the banks of rivers, lakes, along mountain ranges and through passes, swamps and impenetrable thickets, animal trails are necessarily laid. Often there are several such trails and they are located in parallel.
Animal paths crossing to the other side of a river (stream) do not always indicate a convenient ford for humans, but the paths of beavers, otters, badgers, hares, etc. Although they are wider and more trampled than those of bears and deer, they do not go far and in order not to get lost in three pines, one must often determine the paths by the footprints of the owners of the trail. On the other hand, a well-paved beaver trail indicates the proximity of another body of water or the opportunity to skip straight through a bend in the river, which can also be useful to the traveler in one way or another. Otters are very fond of “straightening” river meanders with paths, and if a traveler walking along a winding path uses such paths, he will greatly shorten his path.
All local animals use animal trails, and it is often difficult to determine who exactly these trails belong to and which animals use these trails more often. One must use the trails in accordance with one’s own logic and immediate needs or benefit for oneself, since the trails can also lead the traveler to salt licks, deer lagoons, caves, watering holes, baths with especially healing mud, to the fortifications (burrows) of some animals, etc. .d.
For example, in case of urgent need, natural salt licks can be used to extract table salt. At reindeer lagoons, females and young (red) deer rest from midges in the (eternal) breeze and from attacks by predators. A traveler on the deer lagoons can have a good look at the immediate surroundings and also take a break from midges, but some trails from the deer lagoons may be impassable for humans. In comfortable caves you can wait out bad weather or even arrange a comfortable, temporary home...
The most convenient paths for traveling over rough terrain are those running along rivers directly near the shore or in lowlands along mountain ridges. But these trails usually follow all the bends of the river (and mountain ridges) and are therefore the longest. “Upper” trails running along the tops of low mountain ranges or elevated banks, along the same rivers, although they are the shortest, have more wind and fewer mosquitoes, but they constantly go up and down. In any case, this is better than making your way through thickets, rubble, or jumping on pebbles among scree.
Special caution when crossing swampy areas. If possible, it is better to bypass the dangerous swamp. Animal trails can also take you to a swamp, with a clear passage through the swamp. But we must not forget that elk and deer pass through swampy places surprisingly easily, and where these animals pass, a person still needs to be extremely careful. When walking through swamps, you need to take a strong three to four meter pole with you. They use a pole to feel the bottom of the path and lean on the pole when they climb out of the quagmire.
You also need to be careful when crossing rivers on ice, following animal tracks. For the same bears and deer, swimming in icy water is a common thing, and visually it is not always possible to determine from the tracks whether an animal has passed or swam through this or that section of the reservoir. Therefore, using the same pole, you first need to check the depth of the reservoir at the crossing point. It is not at all smart to use the paths of semi-aquatic animals to cross water bodies on ice, and it’s clear why.
In the mountains, walking along animal trails, you can end up in snow piles or snow-filled cracks in glaciers. The animals apparently feel the voids of the cracks and simply jump over them. The slightest snow or wind can mask the trail so much that the place where the animal jumped may not be noticed.
And finally, a little humor.
Otters are quite cheerful creatures and love to roll along clay slopes like slides into water. It happens that the slides start quite high, are surrounded by dense vegetation and do not immediately go down. But they look like a very well-trodden path. In addition, this “fun slide” begins with a real trail. You can accidentally mix up the paths, slipping on wet clay is not a problem and then...
By the way, in winter, otters often move from one body of water to another. You can't confuse an otter's track in deep snow. The otter mainly tries to slide on the snow; its legs are strong, but short. So, following the otter's trail, you can get to the nearest body of water in the shortest and most convenient way. At least to where she came from, at least to where she was going.
When walking through the taiga, choose the easiest and most convenient path. You can make your route along a steep slope, through swampy thickets, and through the rubble of half-decayed trees. But it’s better to look around and choose the most convenient option. If you suddenly find an animal trail there, then you have chosen the right path.
Numerous adherents of a healthy lifestyle have chosen the road leading to the AGDS (automatic gas distribution station) almost from the moment it was built. Which is very logical: the place is located just a few kilometers from Petropavlovsk, and in the city itself there is nowhere to safely ride a bicycle or roller skis without the risk of being hit by passing vehicles. It’s like there’s nowhere to just run without compensating for the benefits you get with the poison from the exhaust gases.
The Gazprom road in this sense is also not the promised land. There are plenty of cars here too. After all, there are two lakes nearby, which rarely go unnoticed by vacationers not only in the morning and during the day, but for some reason citizens in cars head there in pitch darkness. However, the most experienced local “sportsmen” know the peak times of traffic on this road and the periods when they can relax. Conclusion: although this route is by far the best choice for sports, it is still not intended for active sports. And it is not known when the authorities will take care of the construction of a specialized multi-kilometer asphalt track for cyclists, runners, race walkers and other amateur athletes. Moreover, it is desirable that it be located not far from the city and surrounded by forest.
In the meantime, content with what they have, various athletes observe a lot of interesting things on the track leading to the AGRS. There are foxes running around here, which, judging by their behavior, are beginning to get used to people and are about to be ready to accept food from their hands. There are owls here who curiously watch vacationers while sitting on road signs. Bats glide in the dark, and frogs croak with might and main on the lakes. Finally, not so long ago the howl of a large pack of wolves was heard here, which is difficult to confuse with anything else. But the city is very close...
The Agency for Forestry and Wildlife Protection of the Kamchatka Territory commented on this situation quite calmly. Indeed, wolves are found in these latitudes. But this phenomenon is so rare that experts did not even record traces of animals, but only had eyewitness accounts. The places of mass habitat of wolves closest to Petropavlovsk are the Asachinskoye field and Khodutka. Well, the polar wolf lives, accordingly, in the north of Kamchatka. Those who are inexperienced in the peculiarities of a wolf howl could easily confuse it with the “singing” of a pack of dogs, which are often abandoned here by summer residents. In addition, as it turned out, very nearby there is a whole nursery of northern sled dogs - about fifty heads, including huskies, in whose veins the blood of wolves flows... In any case, conservationists assure that there is nothing to be afraid of: not a single case has been recorded in Kamchatka wolf attacks on humans. The wolf is too unsociable, unlike even the bear, which, in a year that is not very productive for fish, will not disdain anything that moves...
But the presence of foxes should not be surprising. The fact is that in recent years the prices for fox skins have fallen sharply, they have gone out of fashion, and therefore the number of fox hunters has decreased. Nowadays, this lovely animal is killed mainly for fun, which has not stopped the foxes from feeling calmer and expanding their habitat. The animals, of course, are shy, but curiosity and the desire to profit from tasty food often win out, therefore, if you meet a fox on a forest road, you may even be able to feed it almost from your hands.
Bats, according to agency experts, should also not cause much surprise. In Kamchatka they are relatively few in number, but are distributed throughout almost its entire territory. And they prefer places where there are old rotten trees or dead wood, in the cavities of which they prefer to spend daylight hours sleeping. Winged mice live even in Petropavlovsk, and in Elizovo there are simply countless numbers of them.
The origin of frogs in Kamchatka raises certain questions among experts. Yes, we have a lot of frogs, but no one counted their number, since this is not the agency’s tasks. And, in principle, what can they be good for? After all, we don’t live in France or China... So where did they come from? There are at least two versions. First: someone brought them here for fun, but they just multiply. Version two: they got here along with the caviar of carp and grass carp, which were specially settled in Lake Khalaktyrskoye for the natural purification of wastewater from CHPP-2. And spreading caviar throughout the rest of Kamchatka is a piece of cake. And here’s what makes us happy: frogs, as you know, are an indicator of the ecological cleanliness of water bodies. This means that for now we can be calm about many of our natural objects.
In a word, meeting almost any animal on Gazprom’s “health track” is a pleasant and unforgettable moment. And whoever I would absolutely not want to meet is a bear. A runner cannot escape from it, a cyclist can only throw a bicycle at a bear, and still there is no escape. What is the probability of an unpleasant collision? Conservationists never tire of repeating: all of Kamchatka is bear territory. Especially when there is a forest around. This year, bear tracks were seen nearby – in the area of the Lesnaya sports base. Well, many smart books and hundreds of brochures and booklets have been written about how to behave when meeting the owner of the Kamchatka forest. Whoever this knowledge helps will be lucky.
Maria VLADIMIROVA
ANIMAL TRAIL
It was warm sunny days. The Ilmen forests were dressed in lush greenery. The smells of rotting leaves and drying moss have faded. In the clearings, clearings - where there is an abundance of warmth and light, primroses were colorful.
At such a time, you don’t want to think about the war, about the fact that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow there will be a dangerous raid behind enemy lines. Nevertheless, you have to think, and not only think, but also strain all your attention, all your strength to find a weakly covered place in the enemy’s defense line.
Ivan Platonov sits on the right-flank observation post of the artillerymen. The NP is located on a tall pine tree, inconspicuous in the thick of the forest, which descends along a steep hillock down to a swampy lake. Through the tops of the trees ahead, Platonov sees dense small forests on the other side of the lake, and behind the small forests a wide-spread impenetrable swamp; to the left of the swamp, among the bushes, stretches a German trench.
Under Ivan’s feet is a boardwalk fastened to branches. On an iron pin screwed into the trunk of a pine tree, like on hundreds of other observation points, a stereo tube sits firmly. With two glass eyes she looks out from behind the trunk above the treetops.
Platonov does not look up from the eyepieces of the stereo scope.
Already the third point was replaced these days by Platonov, but it was not yet possible to find an unprotected or weakly covered area in the Nazi defense. The spring thaw is over, enemy trenches and bunkers, wire fences and minefields are again closed in a continuous chain.
The Nazis firmly guarded their defenses, and the terrain helped them in this. On our side there were much more swamps and small lakes overgrown with reeds, where you couldn’t build a bunker or set up a military guard, but along which you could cross the front line without much risk. It was not for nothing that General Chernyadyev constantly reminded commanders about protecting the flanks and organizing surveillance.
Ivan Platonov meets the second morning on this pine tree. The intelligence of a scout and hunter tells him that he is close to his goal. The small lake, into which the flanks of the rifle regiments of General Chernyadyev’s division rested on both sides, the dense thickets in the “no man’s land” between this lake and the swamp, wedged into the Nazi defense line, suggested that it was difficult for the Nazis to see every piece of terrain here. Major Andreev, the head of divisional intelligence, had already reminded the sergeant about this twice.
Platonov intensely peers into the curly greenery of the impassable bush beyond the lake. Not a single branch moves there. And so for the second day there was no sign that there was an enemy between the lake and the swamp. But who knows how close the trench is to the swamp and bushes, visible a little further and to the left of the bushes?
The sergeant raises his hand with his watch to his eyes: exactly seven. There are four whole hours until eleven, when he needs to be with the general. During this time you can do a lot.
Having given up his place at the stereo tube to the artillery observer, Platonov, holding onto the branches, descends to a high ladder attached to the back of the tree, and quickly runs down it.
Petr Skiba and Ignat Shevchenko are sitting under a pine tree. Without letting go of the machine gun and leaning his back against a tree trunk, Shevchenko dozes, and Skiba reads a volume of Heine’s poems in German.
Petr Skiba, a student at the Kyiv Institute of Foreign Languages before the war, found use for his future civilian profession at the front. Knowledge of the German language allows him to occupy a special place among intelligence officers, despite his excessive caution, which some regard as cowardice. One day - this was before Platonov joined the regiment - Skiba, on the orders of the platoon commander, crawled beyond the front line at dawn. There he dug himself a deep trench and during the day he had to watch the bunker in which the scouts were going to capture the “tongue”. Evening came, and Skiba did not return. The comrades became worried. We waited a little more and went searching. They found Skiba at the bottom of the trench safe and sound. It turned out that the plane dropped a bomb not far from the trench and it did not explode. Suspecting that it was a time bomb, Peter decided to wait in the trench until it “went off.” But the bomb never exploded...
For some reason, Platonov now remembered this incident, which he heard about from the scouts, and he hesitated for a moment: “Is it worth taking Skiba?” But crawling beyond the front line with only Shevchenko was dangerous. And the sergeant briefly ordered:
Three scouts went down the hill to a small lake covered with thickets. Then, crouching in the shallow bushes, we reached the bunker, which was connected by a narrow and shallow communication passage with an equally shallow trench. The ground here is swampy, and therefore the bunker rises above the surface. This is a large square log house made of thick logs, camouflaged with greenery, and in it there is a smaller log house; There is a layer of earth between the walls of the log houses, and there are embrasures in the front and two side walls. The parapet of the trench is also made of thick pine trunks. It was not easy for the soldiers in this disastrous place.
In the rear wall of the log house, at the level of the parapet of the communication passage, there was a black square hole - the exit from the bunker. A soldier got out of it, bending down, and, surprised, warily asked the scouts:
Sappers again?
Don't you recognize? - Shevchenko answered the question with a question. The soldier's face broke into a smile.
Ahh, I recognize it: eyes and ears! Maybe cover it with a light? We can do this. We have machine guns at the ready.
Are you the eldest? - Platonov asked the soldier.
No, I'll call you now. - And the soldier shouted: - Comrade Sergeant!
A thin sergeant with a gray, tired face emerged from the bunker.
We'll crawl behind the front line, don't get shot. Give me a light to the left of that birch tree. Just not to the right.
After listening to Platonov, the sergeant nodded in agreement and, without saying a word, headed to the bunker.
The front line of defense was left behind. Platonov, Shevchenko and Skiba, holding machine guns at the ready, carefully made their way forward. To their right, the lake quietly rustled with reeds. But now the lake is left behind. Thick bushes began to appear. You can only get through it by crawling.
The scouts crawled. The ground under the bushes was bare and damp, and the smell of mold filled my nose. Not a single ray of sun could penetrate here and dispel the twilight. We crawled for about ten minutes, listening. There was no sound anywhere, only a warbler shadowed nearby.
Finally the bushes began to thin out. In the gaps between the branches the surface of a very small lake sparkled. Platonov was surprised: this lake is not marked on the map.
Suddenly they crawled out onto the path. It led diagonally to the lake. A second path was visible a little ahead. Platonov guessed: these are animal trails. A person cannot walk along them at full height - thickets stand in the way, branches intertwining low above the ground whip in the face. It was clear to the experienced hunter: since the animals went to this lake to drink, it means that it does not dry out in the heat and the water in it is not stagnant.
Ivan remembered how his father once passed on his experience as a hunter to him. An old taiga wolf taught his son to walk through the forest in such a way that he would always know where he was. In hunters' language this was called "walking on a leash." If a hunter went astray, they said that he was “lost his leash.”
“The forest is unfamiliar - don’t rush,” the father taught, “walk a little, look back, notice a fallen tree, an uprooted root or something else. Remember what your road looks like, it will come in handy on the way back. If you get lost, look for an anthill under a tree. It will always be on the south side. Look at the tree trunk - moss is stuck to it on the north side. Now it’s not difficult to find the road... Don’t trust every path, the old hunter warned. - A branch hits you in the face, in the chest - get off the path. The road of animals will not lead to human habitation..."
“Yes, such a path will not lead a person to housing,” thought Platonov, examining the found path. Walking along the very shore of the lake, she meandered among the bushes and trees further.
On this path, which had not yet dried out under a continuous canopy of greenery, near the lake, Platonov noticed fresh traces of a wolf’s paws. Ivan had no doubt that the traces had been left quite recently. He saw that the young blade of grass, crushed by the animal’s paws, did not even have time to rise, and the leaves on the broken stem of the weeds did not even have time to wither.
What a find! - the sergeant whispered in amazement, pointing Shevchenko and Skiba to the path. - If only a little earlier, they would have scared the wolf away.
There was nothing to be amazed at. The war that came to the old Russian and Novgorod forests scattered the animals, forced them to move away from the front line, to climb into impassable thickets, where they were not frightened by explosions tearing the air, where they did not carry the dangerous smell of gunpowder, burning and humans. And here the wolf wandered almost near the front line. And nowhere is there a single human footprint. This means that the Nazis do not know about the lake, otherwise they would take water from it. This suited Platonov.
The scouts walked along the path. Skiba and Shevchenko peered into the thickets, listened, and the sergeant did not take his eyes off the wolf's trail.
The wolf's paw prints were barely visible. From the distance between them, Platonov saw that the wolf was running at a steady, quiet jog. This means that nothing bothered the beast.
But soon the tracks became more frequent and clear. Here the wolf walked more slowly, more carefully. The beast apparently sensed danger. The scouts were also wary. And a little further, Ivan saw trampled grass and scraps of wool sticking to it. Here the wolf lay.
The scouts stopped. The sound of an ax touched their ears; he was flying from the left. We went to bed. Platonov, with a movement of his hand, ordered Skiba and Shevchenko not to move, and he himself carefully crawled to the left. Not a single branch moved above the scout, not a single twig cracked under him. Soon the bushes thinned out, and Platonov saw a small hill in the clearing. “The bunker,” he guessed and immediately noticed the Nazi man, who was squatting behind the bunker and cutting something with an ax.
Platonov crawled forward a little more. Through gaps in the bushes I noticed a far-flung swamp plain on the right. To the left was a familiar forest. Somewhere there is an artillery observation post. The forest fell down the hill towards our front edge.
Now it was clear to Platonov: it was possible to get to the swamp unnoticed. And if you blind this bunker, then it’s not difficult to slip behind the front line.
Ivan looked at his watch. Ten in the morning. I need to be with the general in an hour...
The division commander's dugout is cramped. Here, in addition to General Chernyadyev, gathered the chief of staff - a gray-haired, red-faced colonel with shaggy, frowning eyebrows, Major Andreev - the chief of intelligence, Lieutenant Sukhov and Sergeant Platonov.
Platonov had never had to report in the presence of so many superiors, and when he finished speaking, he sighed with relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Everyone was silent, thinking about what the sergeant said.
Finally, General Chernyadyev broke the silence:
Interesting! We are once again convinced of how useful it is for a scout to be able to read what is written on the ground. “The general ran his hand over his shorn head, and his thin, dark face brightened. He stood up behind his small table, and here, in the cramped dugout, his tall stature was especially noticeable.
So,” the division commander continued, “we have two options for scouts crossing the front line. Lieutenant Sukhov's version will require strong fire support and fire camouflage. Platonov's version - a small artillery treatment of the area to the left of the lake he discovered. An hour ago we would have approved both options. Now you need to choose one, since only Lieutenant Sukhov’s group will go to the rear of the Germans across the front line.
Major Andreev raised his eyebrows in surprise. General Chernyadyev raised his hand, forestalling the intelligence chief's question.
The second group - Sergeant Platonov - will be dropped by parachute.
For a moment there was silence in the dugout. Chernyadyev cast a sly glance at those present and explained:
The army commander gives us this opportunity. Sergeant Platonov with his trackers and a radio station will drop out tonight in the area of the village of Lubkovo - this is not far from the Borok farm - will look at the road to Zamochye there and find out whether fresh Nazi forces are really heading towards the front line. Then he will establish surveillance of the Borok farm and wait for the approach of Lieutenant Sukhov’s scouts.
“Comrade Platonov,” the general turned to the sergeant, “who, besides you, can show Lieutenant Sukhov the passage you explored?
Platonov thought: “Who is better to call - Shevchenko or Skiba?” - and immediately answered firmly:
Private Shevchenko.
That's good. He will introduce the lieutenant to this bush near the lake, and then go with his group. You, Major Andreev,” the division commander turned his head to the intelligence chief, “urgently clarify the place and time of the meeting between Sukhov and Platonov behind the front line, provide both groups with walkie-talkies, codes and everything else necessary. Sukhov's group must finish preparing for tomorrow night...
The scout-pathfinder squad, as ordered, moved to the old pine forest, where the division headquarters was located. On the same day, a spacious dugout was dug in a new place and covered with logs.
Leaving the regiment, soldier Atayev did not have time to say goodbye to his fellow countryman, Corporal Ukinov, a gunner from the regimental battery. Before leaving behind enemy lines, Ataev really wanted to exchange a few words with his friend, report on the letter he had received from home and, of course, boast about his move to the division’s reconnaissance unit.
Before the evening, the telephone operator on duty, stationed with the apparatus in the intelligence dugout, leaving to hang up a line that had fallen on the road, asked Atayev to sit by the telephone for a minute. Ataev was delighted with this order. And as soon as I was left alone in the dugout, I immediately called the regiment. Soon he was connected to the battery where Ukinov served.
I can't. I'm going to the rear.
Be a friend. I was shooting on the highway yesterday. Look what my shells did there.
Not before that! - Ataev said importantly. - There are more serious matters.
Interesting?
Very! Perhaps we’ll cover up the birds that come to us in one farm,” Atayev boasted, remembering that Sergeant Platonov had been studying on the map the area in which the Borok farm was located for two days.
Atayev did not suspect that at that time one of the scouts of Captain Margera’s group was sitting at the bottom of a shallow ravine overgrown with bushes and, having connected to the telephone line, eavesdropped on his conversation...
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Various animals, invertebrates and vertebrates, moving for a long time in the same directions, form trails. Below we will talk mainly about the paths of animals, as the most common and noticeable. It is with them that the tracker has to deal.
The purpose of the trails is different. Usually trails are in one way or another connected with the nutrition of the animals that build them and who use them.
Many have seen clean, clearly visible paths going in different directions from the cone-shaped anthill of the red wood ant. You can observe how ants hastily and anxiously run along them, either singly, or in groups, or in a continuous stream in one and the other direction, often with prey or with pieces of dry wood twigs, which serve as building material for repairing the anthill. Black garden ants make the same paths. Their underground structures have an exit to the outside in the form of a hole at the top of a cone-shaped ejection of earth. Sometimes such a hole even happens in asphalt. Noticeable paths go from it - clean, as if swept, ribbons on the surface of the soil, and sometimes on the surface of the asphalt. At some distance from the hole, the paths become less clear and then disappear.
The most common, numerous and visible trails are those of mammals. A dense network of paths on the surface of the soil, as well as in its depths, is made by mouse-like rodents, for example, various types of voles, mice, lemmings, etc. In winter, such paths are built by the same rodents on the surface of the soil under the cover of snow, as well as in the snow itself. thicker.
Mole holes, which sometimes densely penetrate the surface layer of the earth, are essentially underground paths that are used by their owner primarily for collecting food - earthworms, insect larvae, etc. In winter, moles also dig holes in the snow. The water rat, or water vole, also moves through burrows that it makes in the soil. These holes serve her to search for food, but unlike the mole, she uses plant food.
Where there are many animals, there are always many paths. The larger the animals that live in a given area, the more noticeable the trails. Most of them are short - 50-100, less often 200 m. Their ends diverge, like the branches of a spreading tree, and disappear.
Typically, trails are formed when animals approach from their overnight or resting places to their feeding areas. During grazing, the animals no longer adhere to a certain direction and the trail disappears. Badgers, marmots, gophers, gerbils and some other animals that dig permanent shelters in the ground - more or less long holes with chambers for various purposes, set out from their holes in search of food along paths that they gradually trample. At some distance from the entrance to the hole, the paths branch, become inconspicuous and then disappear. In addition to these paths, some animals that have shelters in the ground, for example, badgers and raccoon dogs, have paths leading from the hole to the “latrines”, which they systematically visit and where their droppings accumulate.
Many animals, especially vertebrates, are characterized by seasonal migrations. But fish, naturally, do not leave trails during migration, just like birds and whales. Amphibians and reptiles, apparently, do not undertake long seasonal migrations, and those that are characterized by migration (for example, sea turtles) also do not leave trails. Invertebrates, primarily some insects, can make long migrations and can be detected visually in flight. But when they sit down to eat, they leave traces (gnaws, droppings), like, for example, locusts. After migrating butterflies rest, their wings are usually left behind, as many of them are eaten by birds and other animals.
Seasonal migrations of animals usually take place along certain routes, where trails are formed. In Africa, elephant migrations have passed through some of the same places for hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years, as can be judged by the depth of the paths and the hardness of the soil in which they are laid. By the way, by laying paths in the forest, elephants facilitate the penetration and movement of many small and large ungulates, which at the same time support and deepen the paths. Elephants play the same role in dense tall grasslands. African ungulates also migrate.
In northern Europe, Asia and America, reindeer are known for their seasonal migrations. Their migration routes are usually the same from year to year. In some places they are wide, in others narrow,^ but within the more or less wide migration routes there are paths in places where there are fewer obstacles and better soil for walking.
The same can be said about the massive seasonal migrations of saiga antelopes.
In our forests there are long animal trails that have existed and been used for tens and hundreds of years. They lead, for example, to natural salt licks. In dry areas, such trails are laid to convenient watering holes.
Sometimes, following a pass in a mountainous area, a person encounters an animal trail, the direction of which initially generally coincides with the direction he has taken. Walking along an animal trail is much easier than walking on virgin soil, and a person takes it. Then, at some point, the path unexpectedly turns sharply and it may seem to the traveler that it has not gone where he wants, not to the pass. He leaves the path in order to maintain the direction he needs, and usually soon ends up in an impassable thicket, a swamp, or encounters another obstacle. If he has enough prudence and experience, he again goes out onto the animal path and safely reaches the pass. A change in the direction of an animal trail is usually due to the fact that it bypassed some obstacle here.
Once, while conducting research in the extreme southwest of the Primorsky Territory, we needed to move from the Ananyevka river basin to the river basin. Mountain. To do this, it was necessary to cross a watershed with a high rocky ridge. Knowing from local hunters that it is possible to cross the watershed only in one place, we tried for a long time and unsuccessfully to find this place, but constantly came across insurmountable, almost vertical rocks. Only by using the sika deer trail did we manage to find the desired passage.
In autumn, many forest animals, in preparation for winter, try to accumulate more fat. This is especially important for those of them that spend the cold season in hibernation. For example, in the south of the Far East, brown bears feed in the summer on berry fields in the highlands of Sikhote-Alin. Then they descend into cedar and oak forests, where they fatten up for 1.5-2 months. Animals walk slowly to feeding areas, using short sections of trails, looking for those areas of the forest that are especially rich in food as they go. Several adult individuals, mothers and cubs can gather here. The distribution of bears among individual areas - the territoriality inherent in bears at other times of the year - is disrupted during this period. The animals do not show aggression towards each other, they establish priority for the right to have the most feeding place, and try to avoid each other while being nearby at the same time.
In deep autumn or early winter, with the onset of cold weather or with the establishment of deep snow cover, the animals unanimously return to the upper belt of the mountains, to the area of selected and pre-prepared dens, within a few days. At this time, bears walk along paths that take the shortest route to the den area. Other animals also move along these paths throughout the year.
Paths are no less important in the life of large predators that do not hibernate during the winter. Thus, according to the observations of one of the authors, D. G. Pikunov, tigers, regardless of age and gender, in 80-90% of cases take routes along roads or along old animal trails. Only when hunting can they move outside the trails. However, tigers prefer to search for their victims while moving along trails. Sometimes certain sections of the trail are used by only one animal. In particular, this is the case where the predator passes many times to lie down or take cover. Along other paths, stretching, for example, along a long ravine or watershed ridge, a male and a female with tiger cubs walk. A single female walks several kilometers behind them. Sometimes a young male appears on the same path, but he tries to avoid meeting an adult male.
For tigers, which lead a mostly solitary lifestyle, the main purpose of the trails is indirect communication between individuals. They also need trails in order to conveniently approach feeding areas, watering places, resting places, etc. For animals leading a herd lifestyle, the main purpose of trails is to serve as a convenient way to satisfy their vital needs (grazing, watering holes, salt licks, rutting areas).
It is known that many animals, especially in winter, love to walk along roads and paths made by humans. However, these human paths are based on animal paths. They were initially laid by animals in places that were most convenient for movement, rich in food, watering holes, mud baths, well blown by winds, and where there were fewer midges. These places are also convenient for nests, shelters, and dens necessary for breeding offspring. Then a man came to these places, he hunted, fished, and engaged in other crafts. The paths became, as it were, no longer animal, but human. Then the path turned into a road along which you could move on a sleigh or cart.
There are numerous paths that a female boar with piglets makes from the hain to the feeding places, to the stream from which they drink. In the habitats of wild boars there are trees they love, on which they itch. These “combs” can be used by wild boars for many years and change greatly as a result (see Fig. 99). Well-marked paths lead to them.
Sometimes temporary paths are trampled by a bear, which, having killed a large animal or found carrion, walks towards the prey until it eats it all (see Fig. 115).
Seasonal migrations are vital for animals both for food and for breeding. If they are deprived of their ability to migrate, this could lead to their extinction. However, sometimes it happens that people, by constructing roads, oil and gas pipelines, block the migration routes of animals. This, for example, happened during the construction of roads and canals that crossed the migration routes of saigas. The needs of animals were not taken into account during the construction of the BAM. Correcting such mistakes is more difficult than preventing them, but they must be corrected in the name of preserving nature.