We're having a little warm spell so I had to get out before all the snow melts to see what's been traveling about our trails over the past week.I've always enjoyed tracking. In fact, I think finding tracks and other signs of wildlife is almost as exciting as getting to see the actual animals. Tracking is a CSI-type of activity, where you get to piece together a myriad of clues to figure out what the animals have been doing and thinking.
Tracks are the most prevalent and informative clues about what's been going on in the neighborhood. From just a couple of footprints you can surmise the species, the direction it was traveling, whether it was walking or running, and whether it was solitary or with its buddies. But unless the soil is very sandy or muddy, or unless there has been a fresh snow, tracks aren't always easy to come by.
Another great clue for solving Nature's mysteries is scat, my favorite of all the tracking signs. It's amazing what you can learn from a little bit of poo. Through a simple examination of the shape, size, quanitity and contents, you can usually get a good idea of which species the poo belongs to, where it was traveling from and to, how long ago it was squatting at that very spot, what it has been eating, and where it likes to hang out.
So you can imagine my delight when I came across this particular clue today. The hair in it tells me that it is from a carnivore or omnivore. The size tells me that it is from one of our larger mammals (larger than a raccoon). The shape tells me that it is not a domestic dog or cat. So that leaves coyote, fox, bobcat or bear. Unfortunately, we don't have bobcat or bear in our part of the country, so I've narrowed it down to coyote or fox.
The tracking books all say that it can be very difficult to distinguish between coyote and fox scat. The coyote (20 to 35 lbs) is larger than the red fox (6 to 15 lbs), but since they both have the same diet, their poops are of similar size and composition. We've heard coyotes yip-howling and we've snagged some pictures of red fox on our camera trap, so I know we have both in our woods. But since there were no other clues nearby (the tracks in the snow around this little gem had all melted), this mystery remains unsolved for now.
