For this wildlife signs assignment, I went to Centennial Woods instead of my normal phenology spot. I entered the woods and pretty quickly went off the trail, making my way to a portion of Centennial Brook. This is an area that had clearly been frequented by many animals. I found a total of four different tracks. These included tracks from a fisher, red squirrel, otter, and red fox. I had a pretty good experience with the iNaturalist app, and recorded three of my findings on the app (I forgot to include the fisher tracks on the app, although I have pictures of the tracks).
The first set I encountered were those of a fisher. I immediately knew that I was looking at a mustelid because of the five toes and pad on the foot. From there, I narrowed it down by size. The size of the tracks looked most similar to those of a fisher, which is what I believe the animal is, although it could also be a marten.
The second set were those of a red squirrel. I knew it was a squirrel because of the long, prominent toes and the galloping pattern of the tracks. I narrowed it down between red and gray squirrels again by size. The tracks were small, leading me to believe that it was a red squirrel, the smaller of the two.
The third set I came across were otter tracks. Again, I quickly knew I was looking at a mustelid from the five toed pattern. I settled on an otter for three reasons. First, some of the tracks had what appeared to be webbing on the feet, a trait unique to otters. Second, the tracks were very near a brook, which is a possible habitat for otters. Third, the size. The tracks were larger than other mustelid tracks that I have seen, and otter tracks are the largest of that group.
The last set of tracks I came across were those of a red fox. I knew that it was a canine or feline of some kind from the four toes and pads on the feet. I decided on a fox, coyote or wolf based on the X pattern between the pad and toes. I decided it wouldn’t be a wolf or coyote based on the size. The tracks were much smaller than those of a coyote or wolf would be. I then decoded on red instead of gray fox because there were claw marks visible, something that is rare in gray fox tracks, but common in red fox tracks. It could be a gray fox however, since claw marks aren’t impossible in gray fox tracks.