Animal Tracks (Tracking Animals in the Snow!)

Support for the Nature Museum is provided by Rose Pest Solutions, protecting homes, businesses, health, and the environment since 1860. Hi everyone and welcome back to the newest season of Curious by Nature. My name is Erin and today we're exploring three common animal tracks you can find in the snow. And although we may see fewer animals in winter, the tracks they leave behind in the snow can tell us what they're up to and how they move. Let's check it out. Squirrels are winter superstars. There is no surface that is too icy for a squirrel to hop, jump, scramble, or climb over. Once you start looking, you're going to see their tracks everywhere. Why is that? Let's take a closer look at their tracks to learn how they move. Check out the claw shapes their prints leave behind just above each toe. Look at that powerful curve and that sharp tip, a perfect climbing tool. This allows squirrels Notice how their feet come together and are almost symmetrical? Squirrels have a bounding gait, which means you'll see their rear feet come in front, just like these tracks. Where are these tracks going and what for? By following their zigzagging and twisting and winding paths, we can guess that they're looking for food wherever they can. They're also incredibly social animals, so these messy tracks might be evidence of playtime. After taking a closer look at squirrel tracks, it's easy to see how they move and how those claws give them such an advantage to climb over almost any surface and makes them such acrobats. The next print we're going to look at you can find in fields, parks, maybe even your own backyard. Who left them behind? Let's look at the shape they take. Take a look at these tracks. See those long oval-like back feet? Do you notice any claws? Rabbits don't depend on the grip of claws to move over different surfaces like some animals, so we might not see any. By closely observing the placement of these tracks, we can see how a rabbit moves. Notice how there are long prints in front and small prints in back? These long prints are their back feet coming up and over their front feet as they hop. This next track we're going to take a look at you can find in Chicago all year round, usually by water. Let's take a closer look at the placement and the shape these tracks take to take a guess about who left them behind. Check out the wide prints this animal left behind. Notice the three toes and that swooping shape between them? That tells us this animal has webbed toes, perfect for paddling. Look how each print is slightly side by side as it moves forward. That might tell us that this animal waddles when on land. What has webbed toes, swims, waddles, and doesn't mind winter in Chicago? I bet a Canada goose waddled this way. That's our show for today and thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed taking a closer look at the tracks animals leave behind in the snow. We made some tracks of our own. What do they reveal about you? Next time you're outside, see if you can spot the tracks we've explored today. And be sure to leave any questions you have in the comments and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. We'll see you back here next time on Curious by Nature.