Snow Track Science!
Photo Credit: Christiana McGuigan
Want to know what happens in your yard when you’re not around? Winter is the best time of year to look for animal tracks (footprints left by animals who have passed through that area).
The snow acts like a blank slate and will show you everything that happened since the snow fell. If you’re itching to solve a mystery, you can find one outside. Every twig, leaf, and footprint in nature has a story behind it and you just need to read the clues to figure out what it’s telling you.
Will the tracks tell you that a raccoon’s been visiting the garbage? That a neighbor's dog went out for a pee? That a parent got halfway to their car before they realized that they forgot their keys?
Photo Credit: Christiana McGuigan
Go for a walk when there is snow on the ground, every dent in the snow tells you something. You can just leisurely enjoy looking at these tracks and imagining what creatures made them... OR you can take it to the next level and get super-science-mystery-hunter with it. To make it extra sciencey, find a notebook, pencil, and ruler (ruler’s optional)- and take your supplies outside (bring a hat and gloves too cause it's probably cold). Once you have your supplies, you are ready to do a little wildlife biology!
LOOK AROUND AND SEE WHAT GETS YOUR ATTENTION
Walk with your eyes toward the ground and look for dents in the snow. It’s easiest to find tracks in an area where there hasn’t been a lot of activity- instead of looking for tracks where a lot of cars and people go by, check near trees and fields and other less-disturbed areas.
When you see tracks in the snow, walk on the side of them (not on them). Figure out where they start and where they end.
Try to find a really clear footprint and stop and stare at it.
Photo Credit: Christiana McGuigan
DRAW/WRITE WHAT YOU SEE
Photo Credit: Christiana McGuigan
Then take out your notebook and pencil and draw the trail of tracks and draw a picture of one really clear footprint. You don’t need to be an artist to do a scientific drawing- a simple sketch will work well. In the space around your drawing- write some general observations (Where do the tracks start/end? Are they deep or shallow? Big or small? Ect.).
Pull out your ruler and measure the track from top to bottom and write down the size of it.
Also try to write down:
-How many prints there are (this tells you how many legs an animal walks on)
-Are they close together or far apart (tells you how long their legs are)
-Are there pads (like parts of a paw print)? If so, how many?
-Do you see claws? (this can narrow down what kind of animal it was)
-Are there any drag marks? (it could be a tail dragging or an animal not getting their legs fully off the ground)
-Is there anything nearby- acorns, hair, twigs, leaves? Could the things nearby be a coincidence or did the animal leave them there?
When you draw and write what you notice in nature it is called “nature journaling”. Below are two examples of excellent nature journalers, who found footprints like the ones we are looking for!
Look at your notes and drawings and make some guesses based on your info. Like if the tracks suddenly start and suddenly stop- it could be a bird landing and flying off, or if they started at the base of a tree- the animal could live in the branches or in a burrow near the trunk, or if there are big tracks next to small tracks- maybe the animal has a baby with them.
COMPARE
Once you’ve written down what you noticed you can go do some research! It’s important to do the looking/drawing/writing/brainstorming answers steps before you start comparing the footprints to pictures of animal tracks. People tend to see what they want to see so it's smart to observe and take notes before you look up what types of tracks belong to what animals.
If you’re feeling like you're finished drawing/writing/brainstorming- you're ready to compare the tracks you saw and drew to an identification guide!
Below you will find one of my favorites:
Photo Credit: Eric Ingraham https://www.almanac.com/content/animal-track-identification
Hopefully this activity brought you closer to figuring out what goes on in your yard when your back is turned. If you enjoyed being a science-secret agent, you don’t have to stop here. You can nature journal about anything at anytime. Just look/draw/write/brainstorm about what you find on the ground and you can learn a lot about the animals and plants living right outside your door.
If you want to do this kind of science year-round, you can! You can also track animal prints in sand, mud, and dirt, but the snow is an extra excellent time to solve some great outdoor mysteries.
Until next time, stay safe and happy tracking!
P.S. I’ll give you extra credit if you comment on this blog post and tell me what animal you think I have in my yard. (Check the first four photos in this blog post for clues!)
