Did a gray fox visit your backyard last night—or a bobcat? Is this track on the trail a coyote or a domestic dog? This two-hour class is an introduction to common mammal tracks in the Tucson area. Wildlife tracking is an invitation to stop, bend down, and look closely. Javelina or deer? Pack rat or ground squirrel? We are surrounded by animals we rarely see and yet—here they are, winding secretly past our houses and through our lives.

Instructor - Sharman Russell

Sharman Apt Russell’s recent nonfiction is What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs (Columbia University Press, 2024). The author of thirteen books translated into nine languages, Sharman is the recipient of the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing for her Diary of a Citizen Scientist, which was named by The Guardian as a top-ten nature book. A professor emeritus at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, she lives in the Gila Valley of southern New Mexico and continues to teach in the low-residency MFA program at Antioch University in Los Angeles.

Refund & Cancellation Policy

No refund will be issued less than 15 days prior to any Community Class. A $10 cancellation fee will be applied to all refunds. No refunds will be issued for special events. We reserve the right to cancel Community Classes due to insufficient registration, garden closure, or inclement weather, in which case, participants will receive a full refund. People with disabilities should make requests for accommodation as early as possible to allow time to make appropriate arrangements.