Tracks in the Snow

Raccoon and little bird tracks – Contributed photo

Shona Aitken,  the Education Coordinator at Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center shares this with you…

Some people hate snow. All it means to them is cold temperatures, slippery roads and difficulty getting to and from work. Other people love it. They enjoy the beauty of falling flakes and the soft covering on trees and bushes, or can’t wait to get out and go sledding.

But there’s another interesting aspect of having snow on the ground – animal tracks. A fresh covering of snow can provide all kinds of information about what animals are moving around and where they’re going. At Wolf Hollow we followed the tracks of a fox as it made the rounds, checking out different spots to see if could find something to eat. We could see where a neighborhood cat had walked through the yard and around the buildings, the route two deer had taken through the woods and where raccoons had visited the compost pile. In some places small rodents had scurried across the path and little birds had ventured out from the bushes to try to find some food. In one spot there was an oval indentation, with marks of spread feathers on either side, then a few medium-sized bird tracks, then nothing. I think a crow had landed, hopped a few steps then taken off again.

You don’t have to be an expert tracker to have fun trying to figure out who went where. It’s amazing what you can learn from taking a short walk in the snow, so try it out. Look for tracks and find out what creatures have moved through your yard.

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