Meeting the Locals

You discovered what kind of animals roam around your yard.

Hopefully, at least one animal took interest in your offering of food. If so, you should see footprints in your tray of dirt.

It might rain, and the only tracks you'll get are of raindrops!It may take more than one day for an animal to show up. Keep up your observations, or try changing the type of seeds you placed on the tray. You can try small pieces of fruit if you still aren't getting anything.You may find tracks, but they aren't clear enough to identify. Smooth out the dirt and try again with some more bait. If you keep having trouble, try a different type of dirt or sand. You can also try wetting it a little before you go to bed to make it more compact. Think of the beach: the wetter sand makes for better footprints and sandcastles than the dry stuff!Your tracks may not look like any listed in your book. Do an internet search to find different tracks, especially if you might have found a species that is local to your area only.

Try this at a friend's house and compare the different animals you find.Try adding flour to your sand to make kinetic sand

tracking, natural history, food chain, herbivores, omnivores