Animals leave their signatures in the snow
THE recent snow has offered up some intriguing insights into the wildlife sharing the section of west Dartmoor where I regularly walk.
Getting out first thing in the morning after the snow fell at the weekend I noticed various tracks as I followed a path, each line telling a story of what stirred before me, written across a pristine white page.
It is not easy working out what has left its prints behind, but it did offer some tantalising clues as to the kinds of creatures that had been stirring before sunrise.
First of all the obvious: sheep and ponies. Worth knowing what the hoof prints of livestock look like before getting excited and leaping to the wrong conclusions – especially as the book I have on tracks and signs includes moose and wild boar.
The large cloven prints of sheep are pretty obvious, as are the circular impressions of unshod horses – and you could tell these were free ranging Dartmoor ponies rather than horses being ridden as they followed circuitous paths too and fro searching for something to eat.
Next I came across a row of small footprints that I felt certain was a mouse of some kind. Voles tend to shuffle along, shrews are light and leave only the faintest marks while mice can hop, and these were clearly created by something bounding across the white carpet from one clump of gorse to the next.
There were bird tracks too, quite large and well defined prints. Given the size, and knowledge of the species I tend to see feeding along the grassy fire breaks, I’m assuming that they were ravens at the top of the hill and crows and rooks at the bottom.
Finally I spotted what I believe to be a fox track. Having never come across a fox on this particular section of moor it was interesting to know they visit. Much smaller than the print of a dog, the front claws had left an impression just ahead of the pads and the track laid before dawn took a route with no human footprints in sight.
One day, when snow returns, I’ll have to follow and see where they lead...