Republished With Permission From Ontario Parks. https://www.ontarioparks.ca/
Writer: David Bree, Former Discovery Leader at Presqu’ile Provincial Park
With the onset of winter, we often think of nature going into a slumber, but while she slows down, there is still a lot going on outside. Winter provides a better opportunity to learn what the animals of our fields and forests are up to than do the warmer seasons.
I am, of course, talking about tracking in the snow. Winter’s the best time to sharpen your wildlife detective skills! While the best trackers out there can follow tracks at all times of the year, in all terrains, most of us need mud, sand, or snow to hold tracks that we can easily see. And snow is the best because it is everywhere! Tracks in the snow can tell you what kinds of animals are around. Many are familiar mammals, like squirrels and rabbits, but many tracks are of mammals that only come out at night or are very secretive.
Raccoon tracks
And it’s not just about identification. Tracking allows you to see what the animals have been doing. We can learn what routes an animal takes, when it walks, and when it runs. Sometimes I even know what it catches to eat, all by following tracks in the snow.
Tracking allows me to get an estimate of how many deer are in Presqu’ile Provincial Park, where they like to go down to the lake to drink at night, where they are sleeping, and how many young ones are in the herd.
White-tailed Deer tracks
I can see where small birds, juncos, and sparrows probably, have been hopping over the snow visiting all the grass heads poking up above the surface and eating the seeds they find there.
You can see where a mouse (or vole – I can’t tell one small mammal from another by the tracks) has come above the snow to scamper over to his next tunnel…
Mouse tracks
…and sometimes you can see where he didn’t make it. The tracks end suddenly in a depression fringed by the marks of wing tips. An owl, or perhaps a hawk found its dinner here.
One year, I arrived in the park’s parking lot to see the weirdest tracks I’d ever seen. Smallish with the thumb stuck out at a big angle. What in the world was that?
Luckily there are many good trackbooks and websites, and I found that my new track was a Virginia Opossum — a mammal previously unknown in the park! Here was proof that this species was expanding its range northward, though the last two severe winters may have knocked them back. (I have not seen any tracks this winter yet.)
While it is pretty easy to see tracks in the snow, it still takes practice to identify the tracks you are seeing. Start by getting out after every light snowfall.
The best tracks are in a thin skim of snow (5-20 mm) over a hard base. New snow on a parking lot or over previously hard-packed snow is ideal. You can see every detail and the tracks look just like the ones in the books.
Look at the basic shape of the print and ask:
- is it round or elongated?
- how many toes do you see?
- can you see evidence of claws?
- how big is it?
These basic questions can be a big help. For instance, the Red Squirrel and Grey Squirrel tracks look the same, but the grey tracks are twice the size of the red tracks.
Coyote tracks
Many weasels hop, so the tracks come in pairs. Wild dogs, like coyotes and foxes, tend to put one foot in front of the other, so they leave a narrow, straight track through the snow. Domestic dogs walk with their feet more spread out and — if off-leash — rarely in a straight line.
Fast-hopping rabbits and hares land with their bigger hind feet in front, with the two front feet trailing, one behind the other. Squirrels are similar: big hind feet first and the two front paws landing behind, but they are side by side. (It can also help that the tracks end at a tree. Squirrels climb trees; rabbits don’t.)
Speaking of trees, don’t forget to look at the base of tree trunks for flakes of bark. While not true tracks, these signs can indicate climbing mammals or maybe foraging woodpeckers above.
Hare tracks
Figuring out tracks in deep fluffy snow is a lot trickier and not recommended for the beginner tracker. Prints are distorted and often snow collapses on top.
You might be able to dig down and see the hoof marks of a deer at the bottom rather than the pad of a coyote but don’t be discouraged if you can’t figure it out – it’s hard!
Birds and mammals are still out and about (looking for food or trying not to be food! The best way to discover who’s out there is winter tracking!
