January-February 2022 • Nebraskaland 23
No. 2 Tracks and Other Signs
Spotting animals during a winter hike is fun, but your
success often relies upon good fortune as much as outdoor
expertise. On the other hand, if you enjoy a little detective
work, you can always fi nd signs of animal activity, even if
you don't see the animals themselves. Tracks, scat and other
animal signs are all over the place during the winter. Fresh
snow, of course, provides an especially great opportunity to
fi nd clues about animal behavior.
Footprints are probably the easiest way to see what critters
are up to. If you have the patience, you can follow a set of tracks
for hours, noting where an animal changes direction, where it
stops to feed or mark its territory, and — eventually — where
it shelters overnight or during inclement weather. If you're
lucky, you can even come across evidence of interactions
between animals, including large wing prints in the snow at
the end of a long trail of mouse tracks.
If you are particularly observant while hiking through
the snow, you can learn a lot about the favorite winter foods
of various animals. You can often fi nd either neat piles or
scattered arrays of empty seed hulls on top of the snow.
Combining that evidence with the tracks leading to and from
that site can often tell you what kinds of seeds are being eaten
by birds, mice or other small creatures.
River otter tracks on ice.
Grouse tracks.
