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Over the weekend of November 2-3, the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project hosted our first ever Practice Assessment. Eight people participated in this CyberTracker style "mock evaluation" at sites around Mississippi Gateway Regional Park and Fort Snelling State Park. The participants answered 56 questions covering 10 species of mammals, 6 species of birds, 1 human sign, and 1 weather related event. White-tailed deer played a starring role, with gaits, sex, age class, rubs, scrapes, a trail in leaf litter, and three presentations of scat featured across 16 questions. Participants were also treated to side-by-side fox and coyote trails, a cottontail form in tall grasses, and an unusual turkey dropping.
Participants thoroughly enjoyed the Practice Assessment. Most received scores nearly identical to their most recent Track & Sign Certification, but a few had breakthrough performances. Special congratulations to Kirsten Welge (Tracker III) who ran the table, correctly answering every standard and every bonus question. Congratulations also to Whitney Loher (Track & Sign II) and Anthony Ulrich (Track & Sign I), who achieved scores in the 90s, and will be invited to join the team of Tracking Club facilitators.
We look forward to hosting the next Practice Assessment in 2025. If you would like to participate, stay in touch and make sure you are on our email list.
Maria Wesserle contemplates Question 35--the first bonus question: holes left by nesting bank swallows in this mound of construction dirt.
Debriefing the ruffled leaves of a deer trail.
Collin Arnett shows the proper way to waft smell from a scat.
The loose splat of a deer "spring cake", which occur in seasons of diet transition (spring & fall).
A slightly sloppy coyote trotting trail, left as the animal moved across an open construction site and onto a trail in taller grass and woods.
Whitney Loher (L) and Maria Wesserle listen during the debriefing on the rabbit form in the foreground.
The tracks of a whitetail young-of-the-year.
Jon debriefs the behavior at this buck scrape.
Jon and Whitney discuss the features in cottontail hind and front tracks.
Pink flags denote questions on a beaver chew (below) and flood debris (above) by Sargent's Pond.
Question 46 (Bonus) featured two deposits from one wild turkey: the usual fibrous scat, with a less-often-seen cecal scat deposited on top.
The front track of a raccoon
Anthony Ulrich studies the fine points of opossum tracks during the debrief.
The right front track of an opossum
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