Who has been here? They’ve left a sprinkling of bean-like curved, fibrous scat and munched hemlock branches, but no tracks. They must have been feeding from up above in the hemlock tree.
Here’s another clue: a snow-plowed-looking path through the snow. There are distinct prints in the path, so the animal wasn’t belly sliding, rather the animal’s stocky body made a trough in the snow.
Along the trough trail was some bright fresh chewed bark with many parallel teeth marks in all different directions. The animal must be in the rodent family with chisel-like incisors.
Eventually the trail led to a crevice filled with scat and a few quills.
Putting all the clues together and this mystery animal is a…
Porcupine!
Love this fun mystery with all the photos and clues leading to the animal. Nice finds!