Tracking means obtaining movement information from signs left behind and following their course. During a search for isolated personnel, signs provide clues to passage. For evasion, this interpretation matters because the person's own movement also leaves information for searchers.
Signs in the terrain
Where the ground yields under load, an impression records contact with a sole. On rock, passage may become visible through moss abrasion or a change in the position of small stones.
Clothing fibres caught on thorns indicate contact between fabric and vegetation. In the US jungle context, bent branches and trampled grass are also interpreted as direction clues: their orientation can contribute to reconstructing movement.
Material transfer and connected signs
Transferred mud on bankside vegetation and wetness at an exit point can mark a transition from water to land because material or moisture has moved into another environment with the passage. The positions of several such contact points can indicate a possible movement path.
Visual signs and scent information
In US terminology, Visual Tracking interprets physical signs produced by pressure, contact or transfer. Scent Tracking instead uses the odors a person gives off.
Meaning for evasion
A distinct access path to a hide site can show a tracker the course of a trail leading to where a person is staying. Countertracking acts on the person's own signs that could be used for this purpose: it conceals them or misdirects their interpretation with false trails.