With snow still on the ground, it's a good time to teach youngsters how to identify animal tracks

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With snow remaining on the ground, and perhaps more oncoming, it’s a great opportunity to teach youngsters how to identify wildlife by way of their tracks in the snow, be it in their  backyards, parks or woodlots. It’s a lifelong education not always taught in schools. 

Learning to identify animal tracks is made easier with snow cover, or even in muddy soil. It’s a fun activity that gets the youngsters outside and connects them to nature so they can be made aware of creatures that live here. To make it more interesting, it can be a contest of sorts to see how many different types of tracks of animals they can find and identify. 

Once tracks are found, they can be followed to see where the certain animal may be traveling to and perhaps even hiding. For example, following deer tracks can lead to their bedding areas so don’t be surprise if they spook and bound off as you’ll more likely hear them running off, before seeing them. 

To locate a variety of tracks, you can visit places like Leaser Lake where there are loads of tracks around each parking lot. Or, drive north on Mauch Chunk Road across from Fellowship Manor and you’ll see numerous tracks on a hillside there. 

Ritter Road, that runs next to Parkland High School and the partially wooded school property on the north side of the road, is  loaded with tracks, many of which are deer tracks. 

Another good place is the gated trail on the west side of Oxford Drive right before the signal light at the Fish Hatchery Road intersection. It runs parallel with Little Lehigh Creek and is part of Lehigh Parkway.  

Trexler Game Preserve is a probably the most ideal spot as there’s  a variety of wildlife to be found on that sprawling property. 

To help identify tracks, search online under “animal tracks” which will bring up a host of images that can be printed out and carried along to match up and identify what animal made them.   Or, download the iTrack Wildlife app as it includes not only images of tracks, but includes detailed specifics such as print size and more. 

Found almost everywhere are rabbits. A rabbit hopping along will show two wide foot prints in front and two tight together from the rear feet. An opossum, for example, drags its tail as it walks and drag marks will show up behind its tracks. 

Deer tracks are easy to pick out as their prints show two toed hoof prints that range from 1-4 inches in length with the pointed end showing the deer’s direction.

To add even more interest, kids can make molds from the tracks and the Pennsylvania Game Commission has a video showing how to do it. It’s located at http://www.pgc.pa.gov/Education/VirtualLearning/Pages/default.aspx. Click on “Explore backyard Wildlife,” then scroll down to “Videos and Watchable Wildlife” and check out the lesson on “How to Make your own animal track casts.” 

Identifying wildlife tracks is an interesting subject your youngsters can eventually and will hopefully teach their children. But do it before the snow melts. 
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