Outdoor activity: Looking for prints and marks

Join Mrs Leyshon on a dog walk and help her look for prints, marks and tracks. Can you help figure out who left the prints? Perhaps it was The Gruffalo?

Related Activity:
Look for real tracks and other signs of animal life

Live in town? You may still find many opportunities to track real animals:

• Cat foot prints on cars
• Scratch marks left on trees by cats and squirrels
• Snail and slug tracks
• Droppings left by birds, rodents, pets, etc.
• Spider webs
• Nut shells discarded by squirrels
• Evidence that leaves have been eaten by insects, snails, slugs, or other animals

In addition to looking for such signs, you can also measure and record them. Bring along a ruler and a notebook. You might also keep a photo journal of your discoveries. Before taking a picture, put a coin alongside the feature of interest in order to give the viewer a sense of scale.