After a few inches of snow fall, I decided to go search for tracks in the area near my dorm!
At the back of the building; Wing, Davis, and Wilks on UVM's redstone campus, there is a golf course that stretches all the way into South Burlington.
Above is an image of the Burlington Country Club, the red line that goes from Redstone campus in UVM into the golf course is our path while searching for animal signs.
What do you need to help identify tracks?
I found using the iNaturalist app to record animal tracks was very useful. This is because the app makes it extremely simple to upload photos and get a species match while also providing my photos with an exact location, to help pinpoint me exactly where I found the specific animal sign for later use.
Also my scat and tracks book aided me with many of identifications!
Using these materials I was able to find many animals, like....
- While going into the first patch of woods in the golf course, I came across Gray Squirrel tracks. I could tell this was the species of the tracks, because...
- the pattern of the tracks were bounding
- the tracks appeared near the edge of a tree, and vanished at another tree around ten feet away and squirrels are tree climbing animals.
- the size of the prints also led me to believe the tracks belonged to a type of squirrel, because the hind paws were larger than the front paws and the overall size of the prints were relatively small.
2. Another species of animal I noticed was a Deer Mouse, this is because...
- at first glance due to the size of the prints, which were on the smaller side (around 3 cm) I assumed the tracks belonged to either a shrew or a mouse.
- But after tracking for a little while longer, I noticed in between the prints there was a distinct tail drag. Mice normally have tail drags that appear in their tracks, while shrews have shorter tails that don't drag as they move.
3. As I went deeper into a particular patch of woods, I noticed Cottontail Rabbit tracks and scat
- The pattern of the tracks were hopping, which usually indicates either a squirrel, rabbit, or sometimes a mouse (picture below)
- But as I measured the prints I noticed that the front paws were around 10 cm long, which was much too large to be a mouse or squirrel.
- And as I followed the tracks for a longer period, I noticed sphere (circular) scat that matched my scat/print books description of Cottontail rabbit scat.
4. While leaving a forest patch in the golf course, I noticed an American Robin, I was able to identify it as a robin because...
- The chest of the bird was orange-red, which is a good indicator of a Robin
- also when the bird took flight, I noticed white patches on its stomach and tail
5. Near the end of the trip, I came across trail that resembled the path of a Weasel.
- The tracks went up to a tunnel in the snow, showing that the species of animal would have to live in the subnivian zone (picture below)
- Also the tracks pattern were in a bounding pattern, had a few distinct toes, and were shaped in a V.
- The size of the tracks were also too small to belong to a ferret or fisher, but too large to belong to a mouse or shrew.