Tracking a Black Bear's Gallop

Video Transcript

"We are Nick and Valerie Wisniewski on behalf of expertvillage.com. We would like to show you some bear tracks and if you would like more information, you can visit our website at walnuthilltracking.com. What we’ve done is we’ve prepared a sub straight here and we’ve taken some plaster cast of bears that we’ve taken over the years in the wild. I’ve set down a pattern which is called a gallop here in the sand and in the gallop you have a front foot and a front foot followed by a hind foot and a hind foot making one group of four. All four feet of the animal are landing on the ground in one group. This is an extremely high paced way to move and the bear when it is in this pattern is either chasing something or something is chasing it or it feels very uncomfortable being where it is. So if you have a pattern of an obvious group of four, anywhere from four to five feet in length followed by a gap anywhere from two to four or five feet followed by another group of four you can very quickly deduce that it is a gallop; a high paced gait. "