MUSCATINE, Iowa — To be a good hunter you have to know how to track, and know which track belongs to which animal. With the help of the Muscatine County Conservation Board Friday morning some local kids got to learn all about animal tracks during a free program at the Discovery Center, 3300 Cedar St.
“The DNR gives the Conservation Board a grant and I’m supposed to create events that relate to fishing and hunting. I’m a hunter so looking for animal tracks means that the animal has just been here,” said Melissa Lemkau, 21, who is the outdoor skills grant coordinator for the Conservation Board. “I love looking for animal tracks. I thought introducing it to kids and giving them a handout would be exciting for them to find out what’s been here and if they are interested in hunting, they can use these skills to hunt the animal.”
The group was small — three adults and three kids — but that didn’t stop the group from having fun. They walked around the trails with the handout to help identify tracks. Both raccoon and deer tracks were discovered, as well as deer pathways. Afterwards, the boys were a bit muddy but still eager to go back to the classroom in the Environmental Learning Center.
Tony Jones, 6, Bobby Jones, 4, and Parker Green, 8, all agreed that walking around looking for tracks was their favorite part, but the group also looked at plastic replicas of animal scat, better known as feces, from animals like the bobcat, raccoon, badger and fox.
“Raccoons will eat just about anything,” said Lemkau, who said you’ll find berries, seeds and sometimes garbage in the animal’s scat. Then she explained that coyote’s scat can be mistaken as coming from a dog.
The kids were also able to looks at plastic molds of animal prints from bobcats, badger, fox and coyote to see the differences. Then, each kid pressed the tracks into a homemade concoction that looked a lot like cookie dough.
This free activity is one of many that will be available throughout the summer. Coming soon are fishing basics, water testing and an archery class. Most are open to all ages. Find a schedule of events at the Muscatine Conservation Board website at www.muscatinecountyconservation.com.
“[Parker] really enjoys nature and the outdoors so we thought it would be fun to do together,” said Kim Green, a Muscatine resident that attended the event with her son. “We try to fit in as many fishing trips as we can and like to do a lot of the camps and free events at the nature center.”
Comments are closed.