February 2026 Sunriver Scene - Flipbook - Page 12
Learn to find and identify the hidden stories in the forest
This pine tree shows signs of being gnawed on by a beaver.
Page 12
FEBRUARY 2026 SUNRIVER SCENE
By Sunriver Nature
Center Staff
Have you ever been curious
about the lives unfolding just
beyond your own? The comings and goings of secretive
woodland neighbors? Wildlife
can be difficult to observe, but
they leave signs everywhere,
and if you know where to
look, the world comes alive
with an entirely new layer of
perception.
Learn how to read the hidden stories crafted by woodland creatures by attending
the Twilight Talk starting at
5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19 at
the Sunriver Nature Center
& Observatory. Leaders from
Nighthawk Naturalist School
will make the presentation.
Nighthawk Naturalists fosters
deep connections to nature
through immersive, multi-age
education and wilderness skills
programming. Registration is
free, but space is limited. Visit
www.snco.org/events to reserve
your seat.
Clues in the forest
Impressions left by careful
footfall are often the first clues
people notice when reading
the landscape tale of wildlife.
A fresh snowfall can open a
portal into the recent movements of animals, preserving
their travels in thrilling detail
across an untouched surface.
Even something as small as a
kangaroo rat leaves distinctive marks in fragile snow, its
hopping locomotion stamped
clearly behind it.
Even the feather-soft touch
of wings will leave a mark on
the snow, sometimes telling
a more dramatic story of life
and death, sometimes just illustrating a sky-bound launch.
Fresh powder offers the most
complete record of those who
pass through it, but the most
fleeting.
Another favorite indicator
of wildlife is the presence of
organic waste, the byproduct
of ingestion and digestion,
more politely referred to as scat.
Pellets formed from the rumination of lignin and cellulose
appear in neat piles alongside
feeding areas and pathways.
Long, furry tubes laced with
bone fragments may be found
among the sagebrush, all that
remains of a rabbit that once
sought refuge there. Even a
splash of white at the base of
a tree or a cliff can point to a
creature that spends little time
on the ground and leaves few
other traces. Everything leaves
something behind.
Other wildlife behaviors
leave their own distinctive
marks. Antlers, for example,
sprout from the skull and
grow rapidly within the velvet
sheaths of skin. Once growth is
complete, the velvet dries, itches, and peels away, revealing the
hard, bone-like antler beneath.
Deer and elk rub against trees
and shrubs to relieve this irritation, leaving behind stripped
bark and battered vegetation.
Clumps of fur may also be
found where animals scratch
or shed, evidence of that same
skin-crawling discomfort.
The pursuit of food, too,
reshapes the landscape. Badgers
dig with remarkable efficiency,
capable of excavating enormous
holes in the soft desert soil
within minutes as they hunt
ground squirrels. Beavers are
among the most influential
architects of the natural world;
while they strive for concealment, their handiwork is anyT F,
