Track Mystery Challenge: Similar but Different

On January 6^th, the tracking group headed to Bell’s Lake. The Saugeen Conservation Authority owns over 1,500 acres of land around this beautiful lake. Bell’s Lake includes wetlands and a Managed Forest. The wetlands are a source water area for the Rocky Saugeen River, one of the major tributaries of the Saugeen River watershed. The Rocky Saugeen is well known for its native, un-stocked and abundant Brook Trout population.

I am choosing to focus this blog write-up on three similar but different track patterns that we observed at Bell’s Lake. The wrap-up at the end will reveal the identities of each of these track makers:

Mystery Animal 1

Tracks: Outer toes on the front and rear feet for this animal point to the sides. Middle toes point forward. The negative space between the toes and metacarpals has more fur than found in chipmunk species. Nails may or may not register. Measurements overlap with chipmunks.

Trail: Hop (front tracks register in front of rear tracks) and Bound (rear tracks register in front of front tracks)

Mystery Animal 1

Mystery Animal 2

Tracks: Outer toes on the front and rear feet for this animal point to the sides. Middle toes point forward. The negative space between the toes and metacarpals has little to no fur. Nails may or may not register.

Trail: Bound (rear tracks register in front of front tracks). Rear feet splay slightly outwards. Can also use a walking gait.

Mystery Animal 3

Track: The negative space between the toes and metacarpals is furry. Nails may or may not register.

Trail: 2×2 Lope and/or Bound

Scroll down for the answers….

Mystery Animal 1: Southern Flying Squirrel. Why not a Northern Flying Squirrel? The trail width is too small. If it were a Northern Flying Squirrel, the trail width would be similar to a red squirrel.

Mystery Animal 2: Red Squirrel. Why not a Northern Flying Squirrel? A Northern Flying Squirrel’s track pattern would look “boxy” rather than the slight splay observed in the Red Squirrels rear tracks.

Mystery Animal 3: Likely a long-tailed weasel (due to erratic trail pattern of short and long stride lengths and proximity to water) but could also be a short-tailed weasel because the measurements overlapped.

How did you do? If you had fun, you always win!

Fun Fact: Northern flying squirrels are important to the ecology of forests. Some of the fungi that they eat have fruiting bodies underground. These fungi have a symbiotic relationship with tree roots, receiving sugar from the trees and giving back valuable nutrients like phosphorus in exchange. By digging up fungi and eating them, flying squirrels help spread their spores.