Big Tracks,Little Tracks

Big Tracks, Little Tracks

" What happened?" a detective says. " Who was here?" Where did he go?" A detective has many ways to find out. One way is to look for the marks someone or somethinghas made—fingerprints, footprints, the tracks made by bike tires. Sometimes a detective finds a hair, a button, a piece oftorn clothing. All these things are clues. They help a detective answer these questions: What happened? Who washere? Where did he go?

You can be a detective too, a special kind of detective—a nature detective. Nature detectives find tracks and clues that answerthese questions: What animal walked here? Where did it go?What did it do? What did it eat? Where does a nature detective look for clues?Almost anywhere—in a backyard, in the woods, in a city park. You can find tracks in many places—in mud, in snow, in sand, in dust, even on the sidewalk or on the floor. Wet feet or wet muddy paws can make tracks anywhere.

Here is a problem for a nature detective: The cat's dish had milk in it. The dog's dish had meat in it. Who drank the milk? Who ate the meat?Look at the tracks and see.

Look at the tracks that go to the cat's dish. They weremade by an animal that walks on four feet. And you can seeclaw marks in front of the toe marks. A cat has four feet and sharp claws. But so does a dog. Who went to the cat's dish?We still don't know. Let's look for more clues. Now look at the other tracks—the tracks that go to thedog's dish. Did you ever watch a cat walk? A cat walks on four feet. But the tracks of his hind feetfall exactly on the tracks of his front feet. So his footprintsare one behind the other, in one line. They look like thefootprints of an animal with only two feet. A cat pulls hisclaws in when he walks. So he does not leave claw marks.

Now do you know who drank the milk?(THE DOG! )Now do you know who ate the dog food?(THE CAT! ) The footprints of a fox are in a single line, like a cat'sfootprints. But they have claw marks, like a dog's. What kind of footprints does a rabbit make? You cansee that a rabbit has little front paws and big hind feet. The little front paws will make little paw prints. The big hind feet will make big tracks.