Local naturalist Diana Clements recently wowed members of the Parry Sound Nature Club with the wealth of knowledge to be gained from pawprints and other animal markings in the winter snow.
“When we spot tracks,” she said, “we ask what we call sacred questions, based on the original knowledge of our first inhabitants, the Anishinaabe. Was it a full-grown or young animal? What direction was it going? Was it moving at its relaxed baseline gait? Faster? Slower? What was animal doing? Why was it there? Was it travelling, hunting, running from a predator or
leaving the spot where they killed their prey?"
Diana’s presentation included her personal impression of animal gaits as well as the detailed knowledge that trackers can gain from animal tracks. Such as:
Porcupine and moose have lower incisors only. When dining on tree bark, they leave a typical upward scrape on trees behind.
Scat (animal poop) reveals important information. Grouse, for instance, dive into the snow and stay for the night, leaving their scat behind. Many animal predators leave scat on high sites to spread the smell of their accomplishment.
Most birds, including crows, owls, ravens and gulls cough up pellets (animal upchuck), revealing exact details of their diet.
Canines leave behind circular animal beds, while moose tend to create oval beds.
Fur, scratch marks or bite marks on trees indicate that bears have rubbed their backs on trees, scratched the bark or bitten it.
Otters and mink like to slide along the snow.
Diana also talked about her recent trip to northern Ontario with fellow naturalists to track Canada Lynx. They started by looking for rabbit tracks. “To find a predator, you must find its prey—in this case the snowshoe hare,” she explained.
Over their five-day trip, they found hare tracks, coyote tracks, old and fresh lynx tracks (toes splayed like a Celtic cross), three different kill sites complete with the feet and stomach contents of prey, a double lynx bed, and ultimately, a sighting of these shy felines.
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