HOUGHTON -- The first "Animal Tracking" event was held by the Keweenaw Land Trust (KLT) on Saturday, Jan. 10, at KLT's Paavola Wetlands Preserve near Hancock. About 20 people of various backgrounds attended the event to learn more about animal tracking from Brian Rajdl, trip leader and Hancock High School biology teacher.
Participants in the Keweenaw Land Trust's first "Animal Tracking" outing on Jan. 10, 2009, inspect bear tracks on a tree. Click on photos for larger versions. (Photo © 2009 Joshua Jensen) Rajdl's interest in the topic was contagious. He explained that tracking for him was a science that convinced him to become an entire naturalist. Since animal tracks can be found in soil, knowledge of soil is a great aid, he explained. After soil comes a knowledge of plants, and then weather. The practice of tracking involves a holistic perception of the environment.
While tracking in January means enduring snow and cold, participants closely followed Rajdl's example despite some discomfort.
"Even though the temperature was in the teens and I thought I had dressed way too warmly, standing around is so much different than moving around outside in the winter and I was freezing cold," said Sue Ellen Kingsley. "So when Brian demonstrated the way to chill your fingers before plunging them deep into the snow to feel out the track buried there, I thought, 'No way!' I just took his word for it. I have since tried out this technique for identifying tracks and found that it works! Brian's skill and enthusiasm were so compelling that we all stayed right through the workshop in spite of the cold."
One of the first ways that the group became interactive in the event was through an example of track casting. Rajdl explained that there were a few tricks to making casts in the snow. One of these was to use an aerosol rubber spray to coat the track, providing a good base to place a casting medium of plaster of Paris. Another trick was to use two people to prepare the plaster of Paris. One person holds the mixing container and mixes while the other person pours the plaster of Paris. Erik Lilleskov's son Ben enjoyed the opportunity to help Brian out by mixing.
After finishing the casting, participants put on snowshoes, entered the woods and found tracks. Rajdl demonstrated how to investigate snowed-over tracks. As Kingsley mentioned, Rajdl put his fingers in some snow to cool them down so they wouldn't melt the snow and then plunged his fingers into the tracking -- feeling more with his numbed fingers than could be seen with the naked eye. Rajdl said he once took a blind person tracking and that person became one of his best students!
Brian Rajdl, trip leader and Hancock High School biology teacher, right, investigates a track with Erik Lilleskov, standing, and Erik's son Ben during the Keweenaw Land Trust's first "Animal Tracking" outing Jan. 10, 2009. (Photo © 2009 Joshua Jensen)Sandy Aronson said her hands were too cold to take very many photos, but she was enthusiastic about the experience.
"One of his (Rajdl's) suggestions for getting good at tracking is, when you are out in the woods and can just sit still and watch, when you see an animal or bird, check its tracks out after it leaves so you can learn 'that’s what a fresh (whichever animal) track looks like,'" Aronson noted.
Aronson said she also learned from Rajdl that when looking at a track -- whether it's on the ground or in the snow or on a tree -- one should try to deduce WHO made the track, WHAT the animal was doing, WHY it may have been doing that, WHEN it may have been there, HOW it did it.
"Just like writing a good news article or solving a mystery -- the same 5 principles hold for tracking," she said.
Sandy Aronson took this photo of bear tracks on a tree during the Animal Tracking outing Jan. 10. (Photo © 2009 Sandy Aronson) Rajdl explained that, in tracking, the correct answers are not as important as the process that is used to arrive at the answers. He gave fifteen minutes to make observations. Erik and Ben tried to decipher what appeared to be a mouse track.
As the hike continued, Rajdl explained that tracks are not always on the ground.
"Everything that is not flat is a track," he said. "Even a small bump in the forest is the track of an ancient rotting tree!"
A poplar tree showed the small scratches that at best guess were the tracks of a red squirrel. Another, larger, poplar tree showed the gouges that were probably the tracks of a bear cub.
Finally, when the hike came to an end, the casting from the beginning of the trip was revealed. It was detailed and completed with only the materials that were carried on the hike.
The casting is revealed. (Photo © 2009 Joshua Jensen) Aronson said the Animal Tracking outing made her aware that being a proficient tracker takes a good understanding of the animals making the tracks and their ecosystems AND being patient enough to watch for tracks and to interpret them.
"In some cultures people spend a lifetime becoming trackers," Aronson noted. "Don’t let the fact that being able to track well takes a lot of time and effort discourage you from getting out in the woods and just trying it!"
Editor's Notes: Joshua Jensen, Keweenaw Now guest writer, is a second-year student of civil engineering at Michigan Tech University.
Evan McDonald, executive director of the Keweenaw Land Trust, will give a presentation on KLT's conservation work and community involvement, including activities such as this "Animal Tracking" outing, tonight, Thursday, Jan. 29, at the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton. See article.
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