- [Mario] Look at that, definitely pee.
- [Coyote] Doesn't smell like anything.
- [Mario] You just smelled that pee.
- A snowy environment can be treacherous.
One of the most dangerous things about exploring
in the cold-- (thumping on ice)
- [Mario] Oh.
(adventurous music)
(soft music)
- Every year, the bitter cold of winter wraps
its icy blanket across the northeastern United States
and with the arrival of snow comes a stark visual change
to the landscape that creates an eerie,
yet beautiful world for adventure.
Today we are trekking through the frozen wilderness
of Prairie Oaks Metro Park.
This diverse ecosystem stretches nearly 500 acres
and its trail systems create a maze way for exploration
in its forests, meadows, lakes, and rivers.
Well, the wind is whipping and it is freezing cold.
And this is about to be our very first
Brave Wilderness wintertime adventure.
Mario, are you ready?
- Well, I'm from Florida.
This is actually the coldest temperatures
I've ever experienced.
It's like 10 degrees right now.
- And normally we would be out looking for reptiles,
amphibians, insects and arachnids, but not in the snow
and why's that?
- Well they can't survive right now
so they're actually out hibernating and hunkering down
as what I think I should be doing today.
- Yeah but there are lots of other creatures
that you can find in the snow
and specifically the signs of these creatures.
Now, winter is a great time to go out and look for mammals
and I actually have one of my very first field guides.
This is the Peterson First Guide to Mammals,
and I love this 'cause it also shows you the tracks,
which is the primary thing that we're looking for.
- Right.
What I'm really excited about,
I think you're gonna be excited for is deer
and antlers. - Yes!
- So at this point,
we might actually find some shed antlers.
- Right 'cause we just got through rutting season
and the bucks are beginning to drop those antlers.
I would consider an antler the holy grail of artifacts
out here in the wilderness.
- Right.
- Ready to head off in the cold?
- Let's do it. - Here we go.
(whimsical music)
Check this out.
Our first tracks right here.
Pretty sure that we are looking at red fox tracks.
And the reason I'm pretty sure that they're fox tracks
is in some of them, you can see the little pads
and also the claws.
So they're too small to be coyote.
All right Mario, actually here's a great one right here.
- [Mario] Okay so I'm on carnivorous dogs.
- [Coyote] All right yep, red fox,
absolutely without question.
That is a fox.
- [Mario] You can see kind of the fur around the pad
to kinda get that shape. - Mm-hmm.
Now we could follow these fox tracks,
try to find the fox but they look as if
they were probably from this morning or maybe even yesterday
but I am gonna mark this down
in the adventure guide. - All right!
- Under species identification.
Our first animal of the day, red fox.
(exhales)
Moving on.
(soft music)
Those are rabbit tracks, for sure.
You can definitely see the hind feet,
the bigger front feet plopping down.
And see the motion.
One hop to the next hop to the next hop,
hopping its way down and towards the river there.
Ah, the river's actually a perfect place to look
for animal tracks because the water is still flowing
which means that there is fresh hydration there
for those animals to consume.
So I kinda say we head this direction and wrap our way down
to the edge of the river.
(soft music)
- [Mario] All right, following suit.
- Wow, bird tracks in the snow.
Not something you usually think you're gonna find.
And see, looks like right here, it lost its footing
and slipped a little bit.
Likely stepped on this thinner ice and broke through.
Wow, bird tracks, cool.
Definitely a heron,
hunting down here by the river's edge.
Well, add the great blue heron to the list of creatures
that are out hunting today.
Think we're gonna have to go downriver a little bit further.
And the entire-- (thumping on ice)
(ragged breathing)
And that's how you slip and go right into the water.
As soon as I was about to day the entire environment
is like glass.
That's what happens and look at this.
Whew, good thing I got out of that before I got soaked.
Even at nearly two inches in thickness,
I went right through that, just the weight of my body.
Took me through.
(whimsical music)
Close one, but I'm still dry.
And we're still moving.
Watch your footing!
All right Mario, what are we looking at here?
Looks like a snake in the snow.
- Yeah there's these little serpentine tunnels,
at least what I think is a tunnel in the snow.
Yep. - Oh yeah wow,
look at that.
100%.
Oh wow.
That is definitely a little mouse tunnel, isn't it?
- Nice, so basically the rodents are underneath the snow,
they got these little highways that they create
to stay warm and stay hidden from predators.
Pretty cool.
- Ah.
You know what kinda tracks these are?
Coyote, 100%, based on the size
and the area that they are in.
I'm gonna get out the field guide here
so I can show you guys.
Here's coyote.
One of my cousins, and of course then,
that print which is about the size of a dog.
These tracks are older, I can tell that
because there's already snow in them
and I cannot see any distinct paw prints
but without question, too big to be a fox,
so my guess would be those are coyote tracks.
Very cool, all right well we're gonna add that
to the list of animal signs we have come across today,
in addition to the red fox, the eastern cottontail
and the gray squirrel.
It just looks like we are on another planet right now.
It's so cool being out in the snow.
Wow.
Look at this.
Ho ho, you guys know what that is?
That is some busy work from a beaver.
I don't know what that beaver was thinking
gnawing down this tree.
There's no way it was gonna drag it out into the lake
but look at that.
The tree has been completely stripped of its bark
and you can see all of the tooth marks.
It looks like they just scissored right through the bark
and were gnawing off parts of this
but this is where you can see it took down that tree.
Look at how big that part of the tree is.
For a beaver, that's pretty impressive.
Check this out.
Look at all those bite marks.
Cool find, good spot, Mario.
All right let's get moving.
Woo, that's some cold wind.
Check out this tree over here.
Trees are always a good spot to look for things
because deer will rub their antlers up against there.
We got birds that will perch.
All right spread out, you go over that way, Mario.
(soft music)
There's a feather, oh a feather, look at this.
Check that out.
Right there.
Look at that!
Wow, perfectly camouflaged in.
Hold that, hold that.
- Oh man. - GoPro up like this
to get a secondary shot. - That's a nice find.
- You know what kind of feather that is?
- Some type of bird of prey.
- Yeah that's right, that is the primary wing feather
of a great horned owl.
A great horned owl are actually pretty tough
to tell from red tail hawks.
It's really this distinct banding that does not cap off
at the top as totally black that gives it away
as being a great horned owl.
Now, great horned owls are really unique
because they are silent predators.
Why is that, Mario?
- Well actually if you were to look in a microscope
at the end of these filaments, you're gonna see little bars
that channel the wind through and prevent any sound
from bring created as they fly.
- Sure, so as a nocturnal predator,
the great horned owl would be out in this meadow,
likely hunting for something like mice
or even rabbits move around at night
and then being able to be silent,
swoop in and get their meal.
You look at a tree like this, it's kind of isolated
amongst the rest of the forest and it's the perfect spot
for a predator like that to stake out
and eventually catch something so pretty cool.
- Yeah. - Now in most instances,
I do collect and keep some of these things,
but considering we are in one
of our local metro parks today,
we are going to place the feather right back
where we found it and continue on toward the tree line
and see what else we can find.
- Nice, great find. - Yeah.
So, just on the other side of these trees here is the river.
And this is the perfect place to look for mink.
I have actually seen mink here in this park before
along this section of the river.
Have you ever even seen a wild mink before?
- I have but in much different conditions.
Warmer conditions, that's for sure.
- Yeah they're a pretty widespread mustelid
and if you guys didn't know, they are related
to badgers and wolverines, of course weasels and skunks.
We got to work with the mink in captivity once.
Steve Kroschel's Wildlife Sanctuary,
and they're very bitey so if you guys are wondering,
Coyote, if you see a mink, are you gonna catch it?
Not a chance.
Why would we not try to catch mink?
- Well they probably gonna bite ya.
- Yeah and very aggressive and what's interesting
about mustelids is they can actually
move their bodies around within their skin
and that means you grab it,
it's just gonna spin and bite you.
But as we get up here, let's walk quietly.
Hopefully we'll find some tracks.
If we're lucky, we might even spot one.
Perfect time of day to see mink.
- Nice. - All right let's go.
Definitely wanna always look for mink
on fallen tree branches.
Mink will always take the path of least resistance
and that's where I always find mink tracks
'cause usually as they would just be scurrying along the top
of a fallen tree.
So keep your eyes peeled for that, Mario,
let me know if you see any disturbances in the snow,
on top of logs and we'll be getting close.
What?
What's that?
- [Mario] There's tracks leading out of the water.
- Out of the water? - Yeah.
- [Coyote] That could be mink.
- [Mario] Would they create kind of like
a little serpentine motion-- - Yes yes yes yes.
This could be a mink right here.
This could 100% be a mink.
You see this very distinct drag right here?
That's a tail, right, so you can see the body impression,
where it came down, just like this.
Dude, good spotting.
100% it is likely that that is a mink.
See this? - Yep.
- Bam, bam, bam.
I think this is our mink.
Keep going this way.
We're on a trail.
Let's go, guys. - All right.
- [Coyote] Doesn't smell like it though.
Doesn't smell like a mink.
It would stink like a skunk.
Definitely mink.
- [Mario] Oh look, look on the other side.
- [Coyote] That's more distinct.
- [Mario] Look at that, definitely pee.
- [Coyote] Doesn't smell like anything.
- [Mario] You just smelled that pee.
- Well yeah, I wanted to see if it had any sort
of musk smell to it and if it did,
we could say, well it's fair to say that would be a mink.
- [Mario] What do you see over there?
- [Coyote] More ice.
- [Mario] No tracks?
- [Coyote] More ice, no tracks. (groans)
- [Mario] Not looking good.
- [Coyote] That was a good effort, though.
- Yeah.
I think we could definitely say
they were mink tracks, right?
- Yeah, without question. - Okay.
- And the thing about members of the weasel family
is they're extremely clever.
I'm guessing it came down the ice and either went
into the water or continued on the ice
and just lost the tracks.
- Yeah well it's okay, at least we got a glimpse.
- Yeah, all right guys, we're off.
The sun is starting to get low in the sky.
The temperature is dropping so I think it is time
to head back to the vehicle and call it a day.
- Yeah, being a little too cold.
- Okay well keep your eyes peeled, still good stuff to find.
Whew.
(soft music)
look at that.
Those are deer tracks right there.
I'm sure.
- [Mario] Lots of deer tracks.
- Yeah, I'm following some tracks right now.
Oh an antler, an antler!
Here, Mario!
Yes, yes!
I got an antler, shed.
Not a big one!
But that is an antler, look at this.
- [Mario] Oh wow.
- Whoa. - Wow.
Good spot, man.
I may not have even noticed that.
- That is exactly what we were hoping to come across.
White-tailed deer shed, check it out.
A little covered in snow. - Yeah.
- Not a big one, probably a second or third year buck,
I would guess.
Here, hold that for a second. - Nice.
- What I'm gonna do is, I have some warm tea in my bag.
Let's get all the ice and snow off.
- Ooh, that's steaming.
- Yes, yes!
This is cool, hold on.
Get all that ice off, wow.
Okay, there we go.
Wow.
Gnawed on by something.
Some sort of rodent, maybe a squirrel.
- This is a great example of the fact that
animals out here in the winter,
they have to fend for survival.
They have to find whatever they can to eat,
and believe it or not, an antler, a shed antler
does still provide maybe some nutrients.
You see where something was kind of gnawing at it
and it's kinda porous there, so it is vascular.
- Right. - And you can potentially
get some nutrients from this if you were
kind of chewing on it.
- Now, deer shed their antlers after the rut,
usually between December and March,
you're more likely to find them this time of year.
February into March.
And you don't find them all the time because animals
just mow through them, when it comes to gnawing,
and look at this.
How much of that antler's already gone.
Wow, this is so cool.
Now again guys, because we are in the metro parks,
we're not gonna take this.
Normally I'd usually probably take an antler home
with me but obviously some animal has been enjoying this.
There's animal tracks all over the place so--
- Everywhere. - I wouldn't be surprised
if some little rodent comes in out from these logs
and enjoys this as a snack, but certainly,
I would say the coolest find of the day.
- Nice, it was definitely worth being a little cold
and uncomfortable but we did see some cool stuff
and this was top. - Absolutely.
Well, we came across fox tracks, coyote tracks,
obviously deer tracks, some rabbit tracks,
tracked mink but didn't see it,
and then finally came across the holy grail
of artifacts here in central Ohio,
a white-tailed deer shed.
So cool.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
- I'm Mario Aldecoa.
- Be brave.
- Stay wild.
- We'll see ya on the next location.
Well, I'm gonna just plop it right back there
under the snow.
(sighs) I think it's time to call it a day.
- Tea break? - Yes!
Yeah, tea break.
Man, that was awesome.
One of my favorite places to explore
are the Columbus Metro Parks.
And if you're looking for a great place
to go out and see animals,
or signs of them in a natural environment,
the parks in your area are a sure bet.
And while the sharp chill of winter
and its desolate landscapes may appear dormant,
there's still a considerable amount
of animal activity you can witness.
It's just a matter of knowing where to look
and what to look for.
If you enjoyed this frozen adventure
into the winter wilderness and wanted to see a mink
as badly as we did, make sure to go back
and watch the episode where I got nose to nose
with one of these elusive predators.
And don't forget, subscribe and click the notification bell
so you can join me and the crew on our next wild adventure.
(animal roars)
(birds chirping)