Upwind vs. Downwind

We talked some about the importance of approaching animals from downwind, so they can't smell you. It's hard for us to understand this, since we can't smell as well as animals. JB learned about upwind and downwind today by 'tracking' an animal that anyone can smell.


They have to be alive to count for a picture, so this does not count. JB almost got a picture of one of these while waiting for the bus a couple days ago. Still not sure what it is? (you can see from the highway line above that it is pretty big.)

Now I bet you know what it is. The interesting thing is that we walked up to it from downwind. Even though there was almost no wind at all, we could smell it from at least 50 yards away. Once we got past it the smell ended in about a yard, since the wind was carrying the smell away from us. When you are trying to get close to a live animal it is important to be downwind, so the animal's scent is being blown towards you (even if you can't smell it) rather than your scent being blown towards them. (They can smell it.)



JB demonstrated his tracking skills by getting closer to these animals

Can't see them? Well, these do not have the best sense of smell, but they do have sharp eyes.

JB walked slowly, and paused a lot, and managed to get pretty close to these animals, which are larger than a groundhog. It helped that he had his sister's camera, which zooms pretty well. Awesome work by JB.