Predictive Relationships Between Age and Size and Front-foot Pad

Foot prints or tracks are a common sign of the occurrence of a wildlife species. By understanding the relationship between foot size and other physical dimensions of an individual animal, researchers and managers may be able to remotely and inexpensively extract useful information on the size and age distribution of a population from animal tracks (Piekielek and Burton 1975; Beck 1991), especially if tracks could be taken under controlled conditions (Zielinski 1995). We examined the relationships between front-foot pad width and age and physical dimensions of Black Bears, Ursus americanus, from northeastern Minnesota to investigate the potential use of track dimensions for the prediction of these attributes.