The group of day hikers gathered round as their information and naturalist, Leah McFarland, knelt all the way down to level out some white-tailed deer tracks.
Their tracks are normally formed like an arrow pointing in whichever route they have been walking, McFarland defined. White-tailed deer distribute most of their weight to the information of their cloven hooves, giving their tracks a steep slope.
The Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust holds nature walks like this all year long. On Friday, Feb. 23, McFarland led the group of 15 or so individuals alongside the paths at Smith Farm, a protected habitat encompassing 142 acres of forests, wetlands, marshes and meadows.
This walk targeted primarily on on the lookout for indicators of wildlife. McFarland stopped a number of occasions in the course of the walk to level out animal tracks, dens and much and many scat, in any other case often known as animal droppings.
Scat holds plenty of clues in regards to the animal it got here from. For instance, foxes are likely to poop on high of rocks and raised surfaces to stake their territory, she stated.
Based on their scat alone, McFarland recognized a wide range of species from flying squirrels to fisher cats, an elusive and solitary member of the weasel household. The fisher cat’s thick, brown fur and lengthy bushy tail made them prime targets in the course of the fur commerce.
Of all of the animals she’s studied in Dartmouth, the fisher cat is closest to her coronary heart. A relative of wolverines and badgers, the fisher cat is a extremely efficient nocturnal hunter. It’s one of many few predators tenacious sufficient to attack and eat porcupines. But the fisher cat’s risk to individuals and pets is overblown, she stated.
“Everytime I talked to people about fishers, they were like ‘Oh, they’re so scary!’ I have many stories of people seeing fisher cats, and there haven’t been any negative interactions with them,” she stated.
As DNRT’s land steward for six and a half years, McFarland has overseen the upkeep and ecological well being of the DNRT’s habitat reserves, which quantity to over 5,000 acres. She additionally works with volunteers to keep up the DNRT’s trails that stretch a mixed 40 miles.
McFarland lately left DNRT. She’s transferring to western Maine the place she’ll be nearer to household. She hopes to remain in contact with DNRT and to proceed to help their efforts after she’s left.
“It is very, very bittersweet because I’ve met so many wonderful people working at DNRT and in the Dartmouth community,” she stated. “It’s going to be really sad saying goodbye to everyone.”
Aside from a sharp-shinned hawk that McFarland recognized flying over a area, no animals have been noticed in the course of the walk. But the indicators of wildlife have been in every single place, from a scar on a tree the place a buck had rubbed its antlers to the massive, gaping gap within the base of a tree the place one thing had been excavating a den.
There have been additionally loads of canine tracks, which McFarland used as a chance to tell apart from the tracks of untamed canids like foxes and coyotes.
Dog tracks are typically bigger and extra round in form, whereas fox and coyote tracks are smaller and oval-shaped, she defined. A canine’s tracks are additionally extra scattered, she stated, in contrast to a coyote’s tracks, which observe a straighter, extra linear path.
McFarland was impressed to pursue a profession defending the atmosphere after she took a course in conservation and biology.
“I grew up in the woods, and my parents instilled in me a love for nature,” she stated. “For me, nature is my safe place, and I want that safe place to be around for future generations and also for our wildlife.”
The nature walk led to a area the place work events have been clearing away brush and an invasive vine often known as bittersweet that kills timber. The area is a part of the DNRT’s ongoing effort to revive grassland habitats that appeal to species equivalent to blue birds, she defined.
“I’m an advocate of us coexisting with our native, wildlife neighbors,” she stated.
