Animal Behaviors, Signs and Tracks

Our family spends quite a bit of time in the woods looking for signs of animals, bird watching, fishing, and bow hunting.  It’s a family tradition.  It’s no wonder that Hunter (6) likes anything related to the American Wild West, the woods, and wild animals.  We have a couple of favorite books to help him learn to identify animal signs, tracks and scat. Teach a young boy about scat and he won’t soon forget it and he will tell all his friends about it too.

We like the “Take Along Guide: Tracks Scats and Signs” by Leslie Dendy.  It is interesting that foxes and coyote will make their tracks in a straight line and domestic dogs leave tracks in a sloppy pattern.  This book is a good introduction to animal behavior, track patterns, and the shape of their scat.  

For pictures of full size tracks, we like “Track Pack: Animal Tracks in Full Life Size” by Ed Gray.  It will fit in a back pocket and has fold out pages with a map showing the range of the animal.  The pages are not laminated so it’s not as sturdy as I’d like for a young boy and all-weather tracking.

I stumbled upon these Nature stores while looking up these books:  Acorn Naturalists and Nature Watch.  The Acorn Naturalists website is a wonderful resource for educators.  I like their categories and information.

When we find a track, sometimes we like to take a cast of it with plaster of paris (big box from Michael’s Crafts).  I carry a zip bag of pre-measured plaster of paris and small bottle of water.  We snip a small hole in the corner of the bag to squeeze out the plaster like frosting.  It only takes a few minutes to set up.  Most of the tracks we find are in mud instead of snow.

A favorite snowy book is Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” illustrated by Susan Jeffers.   We don’t get much snow in our area so we play with Forest Toob animals and white Model Magic to make our own tracks and impressions.  Kelly takes one boy at a time to the mountains to play in the snow but they forget to take pictures for Mom.  One day, I hope we will have a 4 passenger 4wd vehicle so we can go play in the snow together.

For animal behaviors, we like ”Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling.  Hunter said, “I love this book!” and we read it again tonight.  We have this illustrated version by Jerry Pinkney (adaptation).  It’s a dramatic story about a mongoose who protects a family in India from snakes.  Unlike other snakes, Cobras make nests for their eggs and mongooses are sometimes kept as pets.   Here is more information about mongooses.  Britannica has a video showing a mongoose and cobra.   Sensitive children may not like the story or video.

We also like Capyboppy by Bill Peet.  The link is for Peet’s website, click to see family photos.  Capyboppy is a true story about a capybara that came to live with the Peet family in Los Angeles.  The boy in the story, Bill, kept a small zoo in his room growing up and while in college he got this little rodent.  It’s less dramatic and more charming than Rikki while also showing the challenges of keeping wild animals. 

Another one of our favorites is Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter, a story about an impertinent squirrel.  This story made a huge impression on Hunter and we read it many times.  We enjoy the squirrels living near us and they loudly scold us for getting too close as they jump from tree to tree.  

We also love these Backyard mini books from the Smithsonian Institution.  I’ve read these books many times to both boys.  They are available on eBay and I highly recommend them for younger children.

While at Powell’s on Sunday, I picked up Uncle Wiggily’s Story Book by Howard R. Garis and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and illustrated by Michael Hague.  I do not know if these are unabridged, it’s not always clear on a book (argh). I try to buy unabridged books unless I find a beautifully illustrated book, such as Pinkney’s adaptation of Rikki-Tiki-Tavi.

Worth mentioning are Thornton W. Burgess unabridged chapter books published by Dover.  We tried reading these last year.  These are good stories, a bit too long, and some contain tongue twisters that trip me up during a read aloud with long, repetitive, run-on sentences.  Others say this is part of the charm.  For some reason, I have an easier time reading aloud Uncle Remus and Br’er Rabbit than some of the Burgess books but these books are inexpensive and worth a try. From the back of the book: “Thornton W. Burgess, the author of many delightful classics for children, draws young readers into a timeless world of woodland creatures, teaching children important lessons about nature by basing the animals’ actions and adventures on actual wildlife behavior.” 

There is also a Living Forest Series by Sam Campbell.  I read half of “Calamity Jane: A wise old raccoon” to Hunter last year but it is also a rather long chapter book.  I might try it again soon.  I will skip the part that talks about mean-spirited hunters because I feel they are not typical of most hunters.  Campbell’s love for animals shows in the way he describes the relationship between the racoon and the farmer as he assists the racoon in raising her kits by protecting her and planting an extra 3 acres of corn for the raccoons to eat.