Rangers get a handful of special features to help them with tracking. For instance, they “have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.” (Revised Ranger PDF)
With the feature Natural Explorer, they can ignore difficult terrain during their movement. And “while tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.”
Ranger can even ask for help to other animals and woodland creatures in finding their prey if necessary. With the feature Primeval Awareness, they can “establish a powerful link to beasts and to the land around you. You have an innate ability to communicate with beasts, and they recognize you as a kindred spirit.”
“Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas to a beast as an action, and can read its basic mood and intent. You learn its emotional state, whether it is affected by magic of any sort, its short-term needs (such as food or safety), and actions you can take, (if any) to persuade it to not attack.”
And this feature has another immensely powerful and useful use:
“Additionally, you can attune your senses to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration, (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 5 miles of you. This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance, (in miles) from you.”
Also, Ranger have access to spells, most notably the Hunter’s Mark spell.
You choose a creature you can see within range and mystically mark it as your quarry. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 damage to the target whenever you hit it with a weapon attack, and you have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it. (…)