From our Director of Education, Rachel:
I have spent hours wandering around the trails of Flat Rock Brook, often with large groups of young people in tow. I have been fortunate enough to witness amazing forest scenes and incredible animals displaying their strength and grace. Despite this, I know that I have only scratched the surface of forest happenings. While I understand that the lives of wildlife are often hidden from our eyes, I found myself surprised and delighted by the abundance of telling animal prints and signs left by animals after last week’s snow storm.
Snow is a wonderful tool for naturalists. It preserves the tracks of animals as they pass by, allowing for study by curious humans later on. This week, our team of educators took to the woods in search of animal signs with students from our Homeschool Trifecta class. We were overjoyed that the tracking class we planned for this group occurred on a day with snow on the ground!
Armed with our ID sheets for tracks and scat (that means poop!), we ventured out to see what happened in the woods. An abundance of tracks from a red fox were spotted all around. In one exciting spot, we noticed the tracks leading up to a point where it seems to have flushed out a nearby rabbit. Luckily for the rabbit, and unfortunately for the fox, the rabbit tracks continued on through the snow. Another spot appeared to tell the story of a great horned owl hunting for rodents that scurry beneath the snow. These owls can hear the movements of their prey under the cover of snow and will quickly fly down to catch it, leaving a snow angel-like impression behind.
The role of scat in tracking efforts cannot be overlooked. Sure, it is not the loveliest thing to consider, but it does play a great role in determining what animal you are tracking! Late in the afternoon after the sun had melted much of the snow away, we went about following a set of nondescript tracks. The identifying features were all melted away. We followed the tracks, searching for one that might give a clue—can we see claw marks on any? Can we make out whether the tracks came from paws or from hooves? No. Nothing was clear. Until we can across scat dropped among the tracks! Our students searched their scat ID sheets and determined that the animal that created these tracks was a deer.
Our snow adventures came to a close but we celebrated our wonderful finds, looking forward to the next fresh snow cover. When it comes, we will be ready to search the woods for tracks before our fellow hikers come to leave their own tracks on the trail.
Interested in checking out what animals live in your backyard? Begin by studying the tracks and scat of local wildlife! Already a tracking expert? Try out this fun scat ID quiz!
Click the pictures below to see HOW we identified these tracks.
