Professional Development
There are no workshop dates scheduled for 2026, but you can reach out to schedule one for your group (natural resource professionals, outdoor educators, conservation commissions, etc.)
Wildlife Track & Sign Training
Day-long professional development workshops
Join Track & Sign Specialist Sophie Mazowita for a day-long field training to develop your wildlife sign identification and interpretation skills. Whether in snow or snow-free conditions, you will learn tips and techniques to detect evidence of wildlife activity and confidently interpret wildlife sign.
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Field sites will be selected to maximize the diversity of tracks and sign we encounter, based on weather conditions and wildlife activity.
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Program Timing: 6 to 7 hours
Registration Cost: Inquire for group rates​
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Location: Chittenden County
These events will take place in the Burlington area or meet at the Richmond Park & Ride for a carpool to a higher-elevation location, depending on weather conditions and snow cover. The field site(s) will be decided based on scouting the week of the event and communicated to participants 1-2 days prior.​​​​​​​​​​
How many species left tracks on this frozen creek in South Burlington? How were the animals moving? How can we establish a species ID of both the clear and obscure trails? What were the animals doing? What direction were they going?
Topics covered:
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How and where to look: We will share a process for observing wildlife tracks and sign, plus our approaches to seeking out wildlife sign on the landscape.
Track and Trail ID: Identification of both clear and obscure prints, whether based on track morphology or an interpretation of the track pattern and context of the trail.
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Gaits and Animal Locomotion: Reading track patterns and translating them into how an animal was moving. This allows us to visualize the animal that left the tracks: were they walking, trotting, bounding, hoping, loping or galloping?​​
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Animal Sign and Marking Behavior: Feeding sign; dens, beds and lays; scat and territorial marking. As we learn to recognize these signs, the woods light up with activity in all seasons.
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Recognizing Behaviors and Events: We will interpret wildlife sign as well as the story of each trail to reveal how animals are interacting with their landscape. How was the animal moving relative to their "baseline"? Were they relaxed or fleeing? Foraging, resting, or something else?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Mounds of vegetation/leaf litter found along a game trail about 20 feet away from a beaver dam.
This inch-long track was found along a muddy forest road. Is it from a front or hind foot?
Meet the Instructor:
​Sophie Mazowita is a consulting naturalist, educator, and certified Wildlife Track & Sign Specialist based in Jeffersonville, Vermont. Her work centers on increasing awareness of wildlife sign and the application of wildlife tracking skills in conservation and land management. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Vermont Field Naturalist Program and currently teaches wildlife tracking and landscape inventory classes at UVM, plus she offers wildlife education and consulting services through her business, Tracking Connection. Her consulting work ranges from backyard wildlife surveys and trail camera placements to town-wide wildlife corridor assessments. She also manages the wildlife monitoring program for a regional nonprofit (Cold Hollow to Canada) and the operations of Tracker Certification North America, home of the Certified Wildlife Trackers Association.
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​Sophie is certified as a Track & Sign Specialist by Tracker Certification North America, following the international CyberTracker standard for wildlife tracker training.
