Category: Distance Learning

Tracking may have been the first practice of science. Many tracking methods used today are the same ones used by hunter and gathers since the evolution of modern humans! Most mammals are nocturnal or active at dawn or dusk, so it is hard to observe them. But we can learn a lot from the tracks and other evidence animals leave behind.

Want to get started tracking? Join our virtual field trip on Friday, Dec. 11 at 10:30 am to learn some basics. Or try one of the activities below.

CHOOSE HOW YOU WANT TO PRACTICE TRACKING:

Tracking 101: Virtual Field Trip

Friday, Dec. 11, 10:30am

Every Friday from 10:30 to 11-ish am, we hold a Zoom call live from the woods. This week, we’ll look for animal tracks. We’ll take a special look at the difference between canine (cat family) and feline (dog family) tracks.

If you try any of the other activities in this post, share them with us at the field trip!

You’ll receive the link for the Zoom call in your email. The same link works each Friday.

~~We’ll post the recording of the field trip here the following Monday~~

Tracking challenge: dog or cat?

To go tracking, first choose a good spot. Tracks show up well in soft mud, like on the shores of ponds, lakes, rivers, and ditches. Look in fresh snow, too!

When you find an animal track, start by looking at:

• the size of the print
• the shape of the print
• How many toes are there? How big are they?
• Can you see any claw marks?

Today, we’ll focus on one tracking challenge that many people wonder about: how do you tell the difference between canine and feline tracks?

Feline means cats and related animals, like cougars or bobcats.
Canine means dogs and related animals, like wolves or coyotes.

Here’s a feline track on the left, and canine on the right:

What differences do you notice between them? Here are some that we look for:

Feline tracks

• Shaped more like a circle
• Usually no claw marks
• Heel pad has 3 lobes (bumps) at the bottom
• Heel pad has 2 lobes at the top
• You can find a “C” shape in the empty space between the toes and heel pad.

Canine tracks

• Shaped more like an oval
• Can see claw marks
• Heel pad has two lobes at the bottom
• Heel pad has 1 lobe at the top
• You can find a “X” shape in the empty space between the toes and heel pad.

We often find domestic dog and cat tracks around your neighborhood from people’s pets. Here are some of their wild cousins here in Ohio.

Ohio Canines

Coyote

Also called “the prairie wolf.”

Track info:

• Size: 2 _^5/8 – 3 ^1/2 inches long
• Number of toes: 4
• Empty space between the heel and toes looks like an “X”
• Front tracks are larger than the back tracks
• Claw marks stand out most on the two inner toes

Habitat: Coyotes typically live in brushy areas, along the edge of forests and in open farmlands.

A coyotes like to sleep in dens, like under a hollow tree, or a rock cavity. They will sometime dig their own den as well. Many canines are very good at digging.

Common behavior: Coyotes travel on ridges or old trails. They may live by themselves, a male and female pair, or as a family. Coyotes are great hunters because there are very stealthy. They eat a variety of smaller mammals, mostly rabbits.

Red fox

Track info:

• Size:1 ^7/8 – 2 ^7/8 inches long
• Number of toes: 4
• Often
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  , you can see light fur marks in the tracks, because they have fur on the bottom of their feet!
• Claw marks are very small, like a little point.

Habitat: The red fox lives mostly on the borders of forest and open fields. They avoid dense and deep woods.

Red fox typically sleep on the ground. But when they have young pups (baby foxes), they sleep in dens. Fox dens are underground and they make grass beds for the young. It is common for the fox to have two dens and travel between the two.

Common behavior: Fox like to live in families. Female foxes typically have 4-7 pups a litter. They are nocturnal animals but are active at dawn and dusk. Red fox like to travel the same paths, which eventually over time become a worn animal trail.

Gray fox

Track info:

• Size: 1 ^3/8 – 1 ^7/8 inches long (smaller than red fox or coyote),
• Number of toes: 4
• Empty space between the heel and toes looks like more like an “H” than an “X.”
• Unlike other canines, you may not see claw marks because their nails are are very thin.

Habitat: The gray fox lives in the woods. They stay in older forests at night, and young, denser forests during the day. Unlike red foxes, they avoid farms and humans. So humans do not see gray foxes as often as red ones.

They will often climb and sleep in trees! This is pretty unusual for a canine.

Common behavior: The gray fox is typically nocturnal. They are omnivores and forage on fruits and small predators like mice and rabbits.

Ohio Felines

Bobcat

Today, the bobcat is the only wild cat in Ohio! There used to also be cougars (mountain lions), but the last cougars in Ohio disappeared about 100 years ago.

Around then, bobcats were almost extinct as well. But scientists and wildlife agencies worked bring them back. Six years ago, they declared that bobcats are no longer threatened or endangered in Ohio.

Track info

• Size: 1^5/8 – 2^1/2 inches
• Number of toes: 4
• Note 3 lobes (bumps) at the bottom on the track. This is an important clue that it is cat!
• This track is also very round. If you drew a line all around it, it would be close to a circle.
• The empty spaces between the heel pad and toes curve like “C.”

Habitat: The bobcat often sticks to dense forest. But bobcats are also habitat generalists. That means they will live in almost any kind of habitat: rocky areas, timbered swamps or old fields.

Most of the time, bobcats rest in standing or fallen hollow trees. But when bobcats are breeding

Common behavior: The bobcats are solitary and socially distance from each other more than canines. Bobcats are known to be very curious and investigate many objects across their very large home ranges. They can also leap up to 10 feet high! Exploring rocky cliff areas would be no problem for a bobcat.

Interested in learning more about mammals in Ohio?

Check out the ODNR mammal field guide (PDF) for more information!

Make your own flip book

Making your own guide to tracks will help you remember them much better than reading about them!

The video above shows an easy way to make a flip book. Create a page or two for each animal you are interested in. You can use some of the animal information above to start (as well as some of the deer signs we wrote about last week).

For example, on a page about coyotes, you might:

• Draw a picture of a coyote track
• Note the size of the track (how many inches wide and tall is it?)
• Write about the habitat where coyotes live
• Write down a place or time when you found a coyote track
• Anything else you can think of!

Many naturalists keep personal nature guides like this to help them learn and reflect on what they find outside. Be creative and enjoy making a personal key to help you practice tracking in the woods!

Observe wildlife on our trail cams

Watch some videos that interest you. Try notice everything you can about the animal’s behavior.

• What do you think the animal was doing?
• How is the animal acting ?
• What else do you notice about the trail cam?
• If you would set up your own trail cam outside, where would you set it up and why?

Think about what you saw. Can you use what you saw to make any hypotheses about that animal or its behavior?

Good luck with the activities & look forward to seeing all of you young naturalists on Friday!

With Thanksgiving coming, there is lots of talk about turkeys. So on this Friday’s virtual field trip, we’ll look at the turkeys who live in southeast Ohio’s woods. Read on!

Turkey Virtual Field Trip, Friday, Nov. 20 at 10:30am

Friday, November 20, 10:30am

Every Friday from 10:30 to 11-ish am, we hold a Zoom call live from the woods. This week, we’ll learn about how wild turkeys are adapted to live in southeast Ohio.

You’ll receive the link for the Zoom call in your email. The same link works each Friday.

~~We’ll post the recording of the field trip here the following Monday~~

Turkey Terms:

Funny Faces

A tom turkey looks different then a hen. A tom’s head has more lumpy parts. When a tom gets excited

The snood is the flap of skin over the turkey’s beak. The wattle is the flap of skin under the beak, attached to the neck.

Baby Turkeys

Baby turkeys are called poults. They are bigger than baby chicks. Their necks are longer too. Poults eat bugs and grass.

Fun turkey facts

1. Turkeys can fly for short burst, about 100 yards.
2. Wild turkeys sleep, or roost, in the tops of trees overnight.
3. Turkeys do not migrate in winter. Instead, they have layers of down feathers against their skin to keep them warm.

Your turn: Acting Like Turkeys

Do you like to see wildlife? Try thinking and acting like a turkey next time you’re outside!

It sounds silly, but putting yourself in an animal’s place might help you understand them better. Here are two ideas.

Look for turkey food

Turkeys use their feet to to dig up acorns, nuts, and seeds. Turkeys love to find all sorts of bugs and worms to eat!

Our feet look much different than turkeys’, and we have hands instead of wings! We cut the nails on our fingers and toes, so they aren’t as sharp as turkeys. But maybe we can search for bugs and nuts on the forest floor like turkeys do.

Using your hands to scatter the leaves and lightly dig, can you find any turkey food in the woods near you? What tasty turkey treats do you find? Was it hard to find food like you were a turkey?

Keep an eye out for scratched up leaves on the ground–it may be a sign turkeys were there recently.

Try to get a turkey’s attention

A tom’s feathers are more colorful than a hen’s. He can spread his tail feathers open to look like a fan. The fan makes the tom look bigger and more impressive. Toms shake their feathers to make hens notice them.

In the video above, you can watch a tom displaying his feathers and calling out to a hen. Can you count how many different calls you hear?

I’ve never heard anything like a turkey call. It is such a unique sound. Turns out that humans can use their voices to make sounds just like turkey calls, though. Why might humans want to imitate the sounds of turkeys?

It might take some practice, but you could perfect the screech and gobble of a turkey. Watch the video below of the world champion turkey caller to learn how to pretend to be a turkey. If you become a calling expert like Preston, we’d love to hear your best turkey call on the virtual field trip on Friday!

If you are in the right place at dawn or dusk, you might hear a turkey gobble back to you! However, don’t gobble at them too many times, because it may bother them.

Have you ever been out in the woods, seen a decomposing log on the ground, and flipped it over to see what’s hiding underneath? Were you surprised at what you found? Grubs and worms and snails–and all the other squishy bugs and animals that help the forest floor do its thing. 

Join us on Zoom for a virtual field trip to explore the forest floor this Friday, November 13, 2020. Or read on for ideas for exploring the forest floor yourself!

You’ll receive the link for the Zoom call in your email. The same link works each Friday.

~~We’ll post the recording of the field trip here the following Monday~~

Layers of the forest

As most of you know

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The forest floor is the link between the above-ground plants and animals, and the underground soil and nutrients that help the forest grow. When you look at it above ground, it mostly looks like clutter–leaves, logs, bark, branches–and not much life. But if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that this layer has an entire mini ecosystem of its own!

Invertebrates, fungi, algae, bacteria: these small organisms work together to decompose (break down) that layer of clutter and turn it into a beautiful, nutritious soil. Let’s learn more about what these organisms are.

Levels of Decomposition

Decomposition is essential to all life! It is the process of taking something that was once alive (like dead trees and animals) and turning it into fuel for future life.  

Invertebrates

Invertebrates are the first level of decomposition in the ecosystem of the forest floor. Invertebrates are insects and other small critters without backbones. These insects and their allies feast on the litter on the ground. For example:

• Ants break down leaves and other plant parts for food. Ants dig tunnels, which helps bring oxygen into the soil. This makes room for other plants to grow. Ants also eat other, more destructive insects like termites or aphids. Termites and aphids can kill living plants before it is their time.
• Snails and slugs eat a variety of plants and fungi. When they digest the plants and poop them out, they return nutrients from the plant to the soil, so other plants can use it.
• Worms eat the freshly decomposed soil made by other invertebrates. They filter it through their bodies to make their own special fertilizer.  However
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  , some earthworms are invasive, or from other parts of the world. They can decompose the litter on the forest floor too quickly!

Fungi

Mushrooms and other fungi are the next level of decomposition. In some places, algae is more common.

Most mushrooms are much bigger than the toadstool you see. That little aboveground mushroom is just a small growth on its large web of its underground, cobweb-like “roots.” These underground webs and strands are called mycelium.

A fungus’ mycelium can grow for miles. The mycelium will eat everything they can get into! Instead of digesting food inside of them, like we do in our bellies, they disintegrate the food all around them, then absorb it. Some of that disintegrated matter is left in the soil for other organisms. The process can even clean pollution out of the soil!

Mutualism
Some kinds of mycelium and trees help each other out. The strands of mycelium grow around the roots of trees, and help the trees get water and food. The tree gives the mycorrhizae a home where it can to grow and reproduce. This is called a mutualist relationship, which is a kind of symbiosis.

Can you think of other things in a forest that have this type of relationship?

Bacteria

The final level of decomposition goes to bacteria and other microscopic organisms. Bacteria are single-celled organisms (teeny tiny pieces of life). These bacteria feed on dead plants, animals, and even fungi.

Bacteria are super important to the cycling of nutrients in soil called carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are kind of like plant vitamins. Plants need them to live. So it is very important that they get returned from dead plants to living plants!

Your turn: How to explore the forest floor

You might want: a magnifying glass and a small plastic container to hold specimens

Now that you know the layers of decomposition within a forest floor, go outside and try to find some invertebrates, fungus or bacteria!

Start by flipping over rocks or logs.

• What do you see?
• Can you see any of the bugs (invertebrates) that help with the first layer of decomposition?
• Can you find a silky substance that looks kind of like an underground spiderweb? (This is the mycelium).
• What do you think these do, and how do you think they work together?
• For more ideas about what to look for, try the scavenger hunt below.

When you look for these things, try to use all your senses! What do they look, smell, sound, or feel like? Remember not to eat anything though, unless you have a trusted adult, or really want to eat a worm. 

Remember to put everything back where you found it after checking things out! This includes rolling logs back where you found them, and returning the leaves. While it may not seem like it, the forest floor is one of the most important and delicate aspects of the forest ecosystem. Remember, leave no trace! 

Take pictures or make some art based on what you find, and share in the comments below!

How are caves made? On this week’s virtual field trip, we’ll ask a Cave Interpreter about it! Then we’ll visit a “rock shelter” right here in southeast Ohio. It turns out that our rock shelters were formed in a completely different way than underground caves most people know about.

Sometimes we call rock shelters “caves.” For example

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CHOICES FOR LEARNING ABOUT CAVES AND ROCK SHELTERS

Virtual Field Trip: Friday, Nov. 6 at 10:30 am

Friday, October 23, 10:30am

Every Friday from 10:30 to 11:15 am, we hold a Zoom call live from the woods. This week, we’ll meet a Cave Interpreter, and visit a rock shelter here in Southeast Ohio.

If you haven’t registered for our fall field trips yet, visit here:

You’ll receive the Zoom link for our virtual field trips in your email.

~~We’ll post the recording of the field trip here the following Monday~~

Long Live Rock (Shelters)! The story of the Hocking Hills

First, let’s take a big jump back in time. Can you imagine most of Ohio covered in ice? Millions of years ago, it was! 

A glacier is a huge, slow-moving sheet of ice. As glaciers moved across the land, they left their mark on the landscape. Many of Ohio’s landforms, which are features that you can see on the surface of the Earth, were created by glaciers.

If you live in southeast Ohio, you live in the part of Ohio that is “unglaciated” . That just means the glacier didn’t go through that area. Take a journey with Miranda to see some of southeast Ohio’s geology and how it was created. 

The structure in the video is commonly called a rock shelter. A rock shelter is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. This is different from other landforms such as caves because it doesn’t go underground. In the next video

In this next video we will explore what erosion, weathering, and deposition and what their impact on the land is. Here is a chart that explains each:

So now we know what weathering is! Let’s explore the 3 different kinds of weathering. 

Here are some examples to think about:

Physical weathering: rust on a tool that was left outside

Biological weathering: weeds coming up through a sidewalk

Chemical weathering: old gravestones disintegrating 

In the second video, we did the Oreo cookie example. Miranda talked about how some of the rock was softer than the other. Click on the next video to see a cool experiment with some of the rocks from the rock shelter.

Thank you for watching! Make sure you go out and practice spotting erosion, weathering, and deposition in your area!

Art Activity: Draw what you learned

•  Using what you learned in the lesson, draw a picture that includes weathering, erosion, and depositions and as many landforms as you want. Make sure everything is labeled. I attached my example: 

On Your Own: Take an Erosion Walk!

Now that you’ve learned about how rocks change, it’s time to take a walk outside! Erosion and weathering doesn’t always look like big rock shelters or cliffs. It can also happen to the soil in your yard, along sidewalks or construction sites, on the edges of creeks…any soil or rock might be affected!

Review some of the words you learned above, and hunt for signs of:

• erosion
• physical weathering
• biological weathering
• chemical weathering
• deposition.

Tell us what you find or share a photo in the comments!

What is fear?

Fear is a part of our everyday life. It may even have evolved because it is useful: fear helps us recognize danger, so that we can survive!

But sometimes, we are afraid even where there is not danger. Many people are afraid of spiders, the dark, or snakes. But you weren’t born with these fears. You learned them.

The best way to get over your fears? Learn about them! On this week’s virtual field trip, we’ll talk about spiders and other crawly creatures. Face your fears with us, and see if it changes your mind!

CHOOSE HOW YOU WILL FACE YOUR FEARS:

Virtual Field Trip on Zoom: Friday, October 30 at 10:30am

Join us Halloween zoom special as we discuss many common outdoor fears! Learn what you should be careful of in the woods, and what is actually harmless.

We’ll meet a not-so-scary animal with no legs! And a few other animals with lots of legs. Spider expert Sarah Rose will visit to teach us about ways spiders hunt.

You are welcome to share what you are afraid of in nature, big or small.

~~We’ll post the recording of the event here by the following Monday.~~

Can’t make it? Read on to try some fear-conquering activities on your own!

Get to Know Ohio’s Spiders

What role do spiders play in the ecosystem?

Spiders are predators

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• They can help control indoor pest infestations (so your house isn’t overwhelmed with bugs)
• They help control pest infestations in agricultural fields (so that insects don’t eat everything in farmers’ fields or gardens).

Humans and Spiders:  Do we need to be scared of spiders?

Are you scared of spiders? Many people have a fear of spiders. This is known as arachnophobia. But here are some reasons you don’t need to be afraid!

• Most spiders do have venom.  But this venom is not harmful to humans! It is for hunting their small prey.
• Spiders rarely bite humans. We think spiders bite more often than they actually do. This is because doctors have misdiagnosed bites and people have misidentified spiders.

Want to learn more?

Check out the Ohio Department of Natural Resource Spiders of Ohio Guide (pdf) to learn about 54 more spiders found in Ohio: 

Play the spider memory game

Go through this presentation to learn about 10 spiders found in Ohio.  At the end of the presentation

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Here’s a video with instructions on playing the game:

You might have noticed that there are only two spiders in Ohio whose bites could be serious: the recluse and the black widow. They are rare spiders! Learn more about the rare biting spiders in Ohio here.

Try this: Interview a Spider

Conduct an interview with a spider! You will need a paper & writing utensil to take notes during your interview.

First, go outside and try to find a spider. Here are some tips for finding your 8-legged friend:

• Flip over some old logs or stones.
• Look in webs between trees or on the outside of buildings.
• Use a stick to look through leaf litter on the ground or in tall grass

Once you find a spider, do not pick it up or trap it in anything. Just observe politely!

During the interview, pretend you are following the spider around like a news reporter, documenting the daily life of the spider.

You can also try asking your spider its name. But if it doesn’t answer, check out the ODNR Spiders of Ohio guide to see if you can identify it.

Here are some activities you can do during your interview:

• Draw a picture or take a picture of the spider
• Once you identify the spider, note 3 facts from the field guide about the spider.
• Observe the spider’s actions during your interview. Is the spider fast or slow? Is it hiding or hunting bugs? Can the spider jump or swim?
• What is interesting to you about the spider? Is there any bright colors on the spider? Is there anything unique about the spider?

After your interview is over, share your interview with a friend or family member. Or tell us about it in the comments below!

A smile I simply cannot resist! Hellbenders are North America’s largest salamander. They can grow up to approximately two feet in length (twenty-nine inches). Nicknames include:

• Snot otter
• lasagna lizard
• mud devil
• devil dog
• ground puppy
• (Do you have another one?)

These impressive creatures have been around for more than 150 million years, but are in danger. On this week’s virtual field trip, biologists at the Wilds will give us a tour of their hellbender recovery project.

CHOOSE AN ACTIVITY TO LEARN ABOUT HELLBENDERS:

Where Hellbenders Live

Hellbenders are a fully aquatic species of salamander! Clean, fast-moving river water is an ideal habitat. The water must be cool, so shady trees help. Look for large rocks with accessible crevices and places where this salamander can hide.

They are very sensitive to pollution and sediment (bits of dirt and dust) in the water. That is why it is so rare to see one. But we keep hoping we will one day!

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

They have a flat head, wrinkly body, and paddle-shaped tail. Usually these salamanders are dark grey or brown in color with dark spots along the back.

They breathe through their skin! So the wrinklier their skin is, the more oxygen they get from the water.

WHAT IT EATS

These salamanders feast on crawdads, smalls fish, snails, and worms. Hellbenders are also known to be cannibalistic. That means a bigger salamander may see a smaller salamander as an opportunistic meal! Gulp!

WHERE IT LIVES

Rivers in the eastern United States, including the Appalachian region.

What’s your favorite nickname for the hellbender? I personally love snot otter. Post your answer in the comments and tell us why!

On your own: Make Lasagna!

In honor of their nickname, lasagna lizards, bake some lasagna for your next meal! This activity may require adult supervision. Benders have flaps of skin on their sides, which provide extra surface area to help them breathe through their skin, but it also kind of makes them look like lasagna, which is where the nickname comes from.

Traditional lasagna recipe

Vegetarian lasagna recipe

Own your own: Snap a selfie!

More cheese, please! Cheese, as in smile, that is! Participate in Stream Selfie. This is a citizen science project that was designed to help monitor waterways (and healthy waterways are crucial for hellbenders).

Take a picture of yourself in or by a waterway, tell us your location and the condition of the stream. Some things to pay attention to might be:

• How big is the waterway?
• Is the water clean?
• Are there fish living in there?
• What other species of animals do you see?
  • learn more about using insects/fish to tell if a stream is healthy in this post.
• What might make this good or bad habitat for a species like a hellbender?
  • see the where hellbenders live above.

Post your selfie in the comments!

While you’re there, take some time to pick up any litter around the stream. Hellbenders and other species are very sensitive to pollution. By keeping the creek clean