Pierce+Graham+Tracks,+Scat+and+Fur

On Sunday April 29th I attended the prairie ridge city nature challenge on tracks, scat and fur. Prairie Ridge ecocenter is in a competition with roughly 80 other countries around the world to see who can find the most biodiversity in their city. In a small group we went out from their outdoor classroom down one of their main trails to try to identify animal markings, we found a couple deer prints and a raccoon track down by a riverside. We continued along the trail and found many other species that the guide at prairie ridge was recording for the competition. We were also encouraged to download an app and send in any pictures of tracks, scat, fur, bones or animals that we found to help the challenge.

The action plan was closely tied to environmental science as it not only was helping us identify nature and different signs of animals, but it was encouraging us to help them record signs of biodiversity. Our guide explained to us that they are currently in 13th place out of the 80 cities and our looking to improve their spot. The ecocenter was already home to many non-indigenous trees; however, there was much less biodiversity in the animals in the ecocenter.