On Sunday, August 23rd, a group of folks between the ages of 8 and “over-80” participated  in our “Animal Tracks–Clear Print Identification” workshop at Starved Rock Lodge in Utica, Illinois.  Though the crowd was relatively small, the interest and enthusiasm of the audience was high.  There were good answers to our questions, good questions for us to answer, and a lot of good humor from all participants.

The audience learned how to identify animal families by counting toes, looking for claw marks, and identifying the shapes of footprints.  They also learned why we at Medicine Hawk call bear, raccoon, and opossum our brother animals.  Most were fascinated by the casts that were on display, showing the footprints of fox, coyote, wolf, black & grizzly bear.

From our perspective everyone left the program a little more knowledgeable and anxious to do some tracking on his or her own.