Kids Bushcraft - Animal Tracks & Sign

With snow on the ground, the forest gives up its secrets. Everything that's been through here leaves a record, and this week we're learning to read it.

Kids will learn to identify the tracks of the animals that share this property — deer, hare, fox, squirrel, marten, and whatever else has been out on our trails. We'll look at gait and pattern, and at the other sign animals leave behind: browse lines, chews, scat, scrapes, and beds.

Then we head out and follow. A set of tracks tells a story if you're patient enough — where an animal came from, what it was doing, and sometimes what happened next.