I really want to learn how to track animals and get into stalking during my hunting trips.

Does anyone have any advice for how I can learn to track and stalk animals?  Is my best avenue finding someone who tracks and learn from them? Or are there books, videos, or other media that can teach me the basics?  Any suggestions??

Hey, maybe the art of tracking and stalking would be a great video series for the TradGang members to make and sell......

Stalking and still hunting by Fred Asbel is one of the best

Read, watch videos,  but mostly just do it and learn by doing. Doesn't have to be hunting season to go out and do that stuff.
ChuckC

If you have any hogs, go after them! Those are the best animals God made to spot and stalk! If you don't have hogs, practice on rabbits and squirrels...play the wind always. Good luck!

2x what Chuck C said  

follow your own tracks- start to see what tracks look like walking, running, loaded, in snow, sand, whatever.
carry/use a tracking stick.
when you find a clear set of your quarries tracks, measure between the prints, and make a notch on the stick or better an elastic band that you can move around on your stick, so when you get a print but cant find the next one, use the stick to get the measurement right, and find the subtle depression or bruised foilage, etc.
try to think like an animal- if you were walking this route everyday- what would be the easiest route for you to take-straight up the hill, along the gradual contour- along the valley- up on the ridge, they are all correct- every situation is different.
go back the next day and see how the tracks have aged.
this is just a starter'
practice, practice and oh! practice some more.
i would say 80% of tracking is intuition, but that intuition also comes from practice.
keep at it, until it is just second nature- that you are always looking at the ground.
i get so fixated on the story around me , that i sometimes forget to look up- gotta remind myself.
good luck.

+1 on Fred Asbell's "Stalking & Still-Hunting". Also check "The Complete Tracker" by Len McDougall and "Tracking: A Blueprint for Learning How" by Jack Kearney. Kearney focuses on tracking 2 legged critters but most of the principles can be applied to tracking in general.

Check out books authored by Tom Brown Jr. He has written multiple books on tracking animals, all of them are really good. You should be able to find used copies on bookfinder.com for pretty cheap.

I agree with getting out in the woods and sneeking up on animals. I do alot of bowfishing and I have to slowly move closer for a shot. Squirrel hunting with a bow is a good way to work on stalking.

You might check out the "Barry Wensels Whitetail Bootcamp" thread. The Wensels have a lot of hunting knowledge and thankfully, they seem to enjoy sharing it with us lesser mortals.

Seriously, they know their stuff.

You got snow?  Spot something with binos and then go follow them to see how they go thru fences, where they pause to check back trail, how they weave into the wind, where thet bed and bolt, when you get too close.  As above read what you can, but get out to do it.

Many of us oldsters learned my watching Tonto saying," ugh, white man go there, khe mo sabe".  Do not know how you will learn, lol

you have to learn how to "see" in a different way. i can still track an individual cow at a trot on horseback any time of the year, but i grew up having to do that. i see everything that moves on the ground around my house and barnyard every time i go out of the house. don't think about it because it's a habit from doing that for so many years. look at a bird on the ground and then go look at the track it made, learn what a mouses track looks like, learn the different tracks species of birds make so you know what kind of bird made the sign you see. look at people tracks and follow them a ways. look at your pets tracks until you know them from other dogs and cats. it's a thing you can do every day no matter where you live .
when you start to recognize tracks and sign you are on your way to learning more about your surroundings.
good luck!