This time, instead of taking my usual trip to Centennial Woods, I found evidence of animals much closer to home, specifically right outside my residence hall. I even have a hunch about who they’re from. But we’ll circle back to that. Using the iNaturalist app to post my finding was easy. I just searched for the project our class is contributing to, joined it, and then my image was immediately uploaded.
These weren’t the clearest I’d ever seen, but I recognized them all the same. Four toes with nails, all spread out pointing forward. This was a domesticated dog! The two outer toes specifically spread out, so this makes me confident to say that it is not a wild canine breed.
I’ll be honest I had a bit of an outside clue for these. My neighbor has a lovely dog named Juno, and I’d seen her prints out here, just 3 feet away from our backdoor, many times before. Funnily enough, right as I turned to walk to the dining hall, Juno and one of her owners (my neighbor) walked out so Juno could get her outdoor time! So my hypothesis may or may not be confirmed.
I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t have time to go to the woods for this assignment, but the opportunity for winter tracking presented itself and I wasn’t about to say no!
Not to worry! I’ll see you in my next post in Centennial!