How to track the secret lives of Minnesota’s wintering animals

Look outside after a fresh snowfall, and you will often see the tracks reminding us of all the animals surviving outdoors. There is an art to following those tracks through the snow, giving us insight into the lives of hardy critters as they seek food, safety and ways to stay warm.

Tracks revealing long back feet and small front paws usually indicate eastern cottontail rabbits or jack rabbits. If you notice poop pellets near the base of brush where they shelter and eat twigs, look to the trees overhead. You might spy a hawk, eagle or owl hoping to nab dinner.

With distinctive hooves and the inclination to travel in groups, deer leave tracks between sources of food (think dogwood and willow shrubs) and clusters of conifers or other sheltered areas where they bed down. As snow deepens, look for well-trod trails that reveal their daily routine.

Mice leave tiny pawprints with the faint drag of a tail, but if snow is deep enough you may see where they burrowed beneath it and created a maze of tunnels. Mice, as well as shrews and voles, build tunnels into what’s called a subnivean ecosystem that helps them hide and conserve energy with snow providing insulation. Coyotes and foxes use their sense of smell or listen for faint rustlings of rodents before leaping and diving into snow to nab their prey.

Check with regional parks, nature centers and state parks for upcoming winter animal track programs. For more in-depth tracking programs, check out the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project (mntracking.org) founded by Jonathan Poppele, author of “Animal Tracks: Midwest Edition.” The project hosts monthly events around the Twin Cities.

Lisa Meyers McClintick has freelanced for the Minnesota Star Tribune since 2001 and volunteers as a Minnesota Master Naturalist.