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| A study of animal Gaits |
Story of the Day for Jan 18
On a snowy Sunday morning, after many icy kilometres, our little
tracking crew found itself on the edge of the Kreug Forest. A great piece of
land preserved through the years by the Kreug family and then donated as a
preserve, some of us reminisced about beautiful native plants we had seen here
in other seasons. But top of everyone's mind was the potential for bobcat! Twice
over the past year there had been potential bobcat scat spotted on the scrubby
edge of the wetland. Now, with snow all around, we were excited to see if we
could find evidence of those beautiful tracks!
Snowshoeing through the cedars on the edge of a pond, there was lots of
evidence of deer walking, feeding and sleeping. An old cedar stump held the
claw marks of a squirrel and maybe a raccoon. Claw marks reminiscent of tiny
hieroglyphics in an obscure forest language - hard to say how long they have stood
there.
As we head out carefully across the ice (a foot went through on more
than occasion that day:) ), we find an aged trail of what looks like a
starfish? With splayed toes at all angles, and a regular rhythm, this animal
had crossed the pond to the shore. Although difficult to see individual toes,
the wild shape of these tracks could only be attributed to Ontario's only
marsupial - Virginia Opossum!
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| What track pattern do you see here? |
Sticking to brushy, covered edges of the wetland, we came to a crossing
where multiple deer had gone from forest to forest, changing gaits in rapid
succession as they crossed the open ice. The thin layer of slush on under the
snow, provided great contrast for this in-depth analysis of cervid movement.
After Saturday nights in-depth whiteboard studying, we were able to pick out an
individual deer as it moved from a transverse gallop to a bound to a rotary
gallop (the fastest gait I know of). Using the tracking text from Elbroch, we
drew out fronts and hinds, and compared the lightning bolt shape of a transverse
placement of feet to a rotary placement which is more C - shaped.
Picking up the pace to get out of our heads, we came across a tiny least
weasel trail over the ice, so snowed in we couldn't count toes, but saw the
characteristic 3x4 lope that this family loves. On land, a tiny ironwood
sapling showed signs of fresh browse. On a little island in the snow, someone
found what looked like a rib bone.
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| Porcupine Den Site |
After lunch and snow fight with a conifer (wherein said tree suddenly
dumped snow all over unsuspecting snacking adults), we headed towards some
fresh porcupine chews. We found a little "snow plow" trail of the
porcupine leading into an active den at the base of a beautiful old sugar
maple.
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| What is that up there? |
Our group dispersed a little amongst the open hardwoods and saw little
shrew and potential short-tailed weasel trails. Wait - what is that? A little
2x2 loping trail with a tiny piece of scat? Ropy scat and little further down a
piece of flesh? As we trailed this tiny predator, we found another and then
another scrap of flesh. Under a log, over the snow, across the hill until it
seemingly disappeared. The worn trail told of us the tiny weasel hunter who
must patrol this patch of forest. Although he (presuming from track size) was
not the cute and fluffy cat we had hoped for, we were all left with the wonder
of this carnivorous creature . .
Written by Lee Earl - 2nd year Tracking Apprentice - (also certified Level III Track and Sign! Whoo-hoooo!)
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