When heading out on a game drive, the soft light of dawn illuminates the footprints or traces of animals, whether predator or prey; each set of tracks tells its own story. A lion’s broad pads, the fine cloven marks of an impala, maybe even the faint sweep of a tail. Each print is a clue, a line in the story of life written while we slept. Often, it is only from these scuffs in the sand that we would ever know of any animal moving through the area.
These contrasting impressions, each foot or hoof, tell a story of design or purpose, guided by millennia of evolution.
Soft Pads and Silent Steps
Imagine yourself slipping silently through the morning mist, heart pounding, eyes on the shimmering flank of a kudu. The stalk begins. For a predator, silence is everything; it needs stealth before speed, and that all begins with its feet.
This male leopard grooms itself using its dew claw
A cat’s paw is a masterpiece of design: thick pads of skin and fat cushion every step, allowing the animal to move almost without sound. Each pad absorbs impact and grips uneven ground, while tiny sensory nerves feed information about texture and vibration back to the brain. The leopard doesn’t just walk; it feels the ground beneath it.
Textured and worn, showing the many miles this male lion has traversed during the missions to hold and protect his territory.
At Londolozi, we often find these prints pressed softly into the sand, the edges smooth and soundless. To a tracker, they’re unmistakable: rounded toes, no claw marks, perfectly placed. The predator’s foot is the definition of precision — silent, balanced, and built for the chase.
Fresh lion tracks on top of vehicle tracks in the soft sand help to determine the direction and movement of the animal as we begin our morning search.
Hooves for Endurance and Escape
Now look at the other side of the story.
In the same stretch of sand, you’ll see a completely different shape — the clean twin points of a hoof. These belong to the grazers and browsers, the antelope who depend on speed rather than secrecy.
A hoof is nothing more than a modified and toughened nail made of keratin (the same protein that makes up our hair), but it’s one of nature’s greatest running tools. Walking on the tips of their toes gives these animals longer strides and faster acceleration. The hard shell protects the bones and tendons inside, while it is still hard and durable enough to withstand the rigours of the hard ground. Being an extension of the pedal bone, the hoof spreads the load and requires little energy expenditure to stabilise the “foot”, allowing them to move across open terrain with less energy cost and at greater speeds. As one evolutionary summary puts it, “the development of hooves illustrates a major innovation in the evolution of a cursorial (running) lifestyle.”
This infographic shows the different types of feet. Digitigrade represents the cat and dog type of foot, and unguligrade is representative of the antelopes or hoofed animals.
So while the predator tiptoes silently, the prey darts off using their hooves to flee — needing every advantage to stay alive.
An image that gets everybody excited, the sign of fresh tracks crossing the Sand River.
So next time you step down from the vehicle and see tracks pressed into the sand, take a moment to read them. Beneath each print lies a story of adaptation and survival. Of how life in the wild continues to move, silently and swiftly, just beyond our footsteps.
The ground is a living page, a living story of ever-changing dynamics and coexistence between species. A predator’s pad leaves whisper-shallow marks; an ungulate’s hooves leave definitive punctuation.
Hi Kirst, thanks for you informative summary on Footprints in the Sand. We live on a reserve and can often tell which antelope or pig has come past our house. We even had giraffe come past once before. So exciting to see the footprints and to be able to identify the different animals. We also do have leopards here, but they do not move here in between the houses. On the cameras on to of the plateau, you can see the leopard walking and also the (rooikat) is also on the plateau.
Reading tracks is such an amazing skill. I admire the trackers who know exactly the who and when and how.
Soooo nice! Cats’ paws are masterpieces, and from above look fluffy… hooves appear very elegant, made for speed. So nature carves her wonders….
One of the highlights of any drive is spotting tracks alongside the vehicle and trying to figure out what animal matches the tracks. Sometimes it’s easy to figure out especially if the tracks are fresh, but when they become overlaid with other tracks, that’s the difficult part. This is why I have such respect for the tracker/guide duo, who seamlessly communicate with one another to identify what the bush is saying. Blogs like this are not only interesting but informative so thank you Kirst.
Thanks Kirst! We never thought about the different kind of feet/paws. We are always excited when our vehicle team finds fresh tracks!
Tracks are fascinating and I’m awestruck by the skill of Londolozi rangers and trackers. I always enjoy looking at all the tracks when having coffee during a drive. That’s when I learn so much!