In mid-December a mysterious set of animal tracks appeared along a favorite local trail near our winter office (outside the Park). We call the trail “the bluff trail” because it meanders along the edge of a bluff with a gradual drop about 500 feet to the Nenana River. The area is boreal forest, dominated by white spruce trees and wiggly-trunked aspens, braving the sometimes high winds along the bluff. We commonly see animal sign along there….from black bear scat laden with berries in the fall, to perfect lynx and snowshoe hare tracks in winter, along with the ubiquitous and ever present runs of red tree squirrels and voles. Twice I’ve seen the tracks of wolves…..about the size of salad plates; they couldn’t possibly be confused with even the largest sled dog in the area.
One thing I’ve learned in my years as a naturalist is that sometimes the most helpful description of an unidentified species includes the type of habitat it was seen in. For instance, if someone saw a “big, brown bird”, asking where is was (cliffs, lake, tundra meadow, dense forest, willow thicket?) can help scores in its potential ID. There are outliers, of course, but typically an animal’s habitat falls within fairly narrow parameters.
So, this mysterious animal track.….Austin first spotted the tracks and attemped to describe them to me, and I was flummoxed. It had small feet, only about one inch long, with a very prominent tail drag mark. It had very pointy, clawed toes (like a squirrel’s?) and walked with a gait that was walking, not hopping. I was racking my brain to think what it could be...baby porcupine? (no--still too small and porkeys have rear feet like bears with a furry-looking, large tail drag), a tree squirrel dragging a stick? (no--they hop, and the tail marks swooshed side to side), flying squirrel? (no--the tracks walked around on the ground too much, and they hop, not walk), pine marten or elusive long tailed weasel? (no, they hop...also don't have long pointy toes), Ashley’s dachshund? (no--his feet are obviously doglike with a longer gait and no tail drag). What other small animals inhabit the forest here that could leave such marks? I studied them long and hard, and even took the attached photo. The tail looked to be solid....like a possum tail....not furry. They honestly looked like the tracks of a large, common RAT.
And then it hit me....muskrat!
Yep. Confirmed with track descriptions from a tracking book. Now the only mystery is: what was it doing on the bluff trail!? The nearest lake was perhaps two miles away, and the river was very, very far below. Spruce forest is not the realm of the aquatic muskrat! Many ideas came to my mind…perhaps the family unit had grown too big and this was an adolescent pushed out to find its own way in the world? Perhaps our snowless winter has been producing too much ice that is crowding them out of their lairs? A few days later, our neighbor, Fritz, showed Ashley and Teresa a curious set of tracks near his home. Indeed, they were the same.
One mystery solved, another began.
