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Other Travelers Along the Path Red Fox – Fox are largely nocturnal and are usually active two hours before dark and several hours after dawn. They can also be active during the day if food is scarce. Fox communicate by leaving their scent on prominent markings, such as rocks or tufts of grass. A skunk-like odor emanating from a sparsely wooded area is a sure sign that a fox is around. Scats are also left as markings along the Four Soldiers Path. (With all our woodland mammals, evidence such as scat, tracks, beds, markings on vegetation, or scent are more common than a sighting of the individual animal itself). Red fox sleep in the open, even in subzero temperatures, and use dens for raising pups or for refuge. Bedding signs may be found in fields and south facing slopes where they can take advantage of the sun’s warmth. During sleep, a fox will cover its face with its bushy tail to keep warm, just like many dogs do. Red fox breed from mid-January to late February, with one to ten pups born in late March or early April. Moose – A big moose can stand up to six feet tall at the shoulder, and weigh as much as 1,200 pounds. Their front legs are longer than their back legs, helping them step over fallen trees and move through deep snow. Moose have short necks, forcing them to either bend from the shoulder and spread their front legs or drop on their knees in order to feed on ground vegetation. Moose have keen senses of smell and hearing.When hearing or picking up scents is difficult, as it is during poor weather, moose will take refuge in dense forests. Unlike many animals, moose do not have sharp incisors in the upper jaw. Instead, the lower incisors bite against a callous pad in the front of the upper jaw. This design enables moose to rip and tear vegetation with their back molars. A good sign of the presence of a moose is willow, striped maple, or mountain ash bark that’s been torn in long, vertical, parallel strips, each strip about the width of a finger. A full grown moose eats up to 35 pounds of food a day. Summer fare consists of stream, pond, and shallow lake plants. Red Squirrel – These creatures are very territorial and will scamper up a tree, scolding you with their chattering alarm call and rapidly waving their tail. Red squirrels live in coniferous (cone-bearing) or mixed coniferous woods, but can also be found in barns and other wooden buildings in wooded areas. They regularly travel along “highways” through the treetops where they become easy targets for predators like the pine marten or barred owl. Red squirrels store their pine cone food in a central spot, known as a cache, making it easy to protect it from pilfering chipmunks and other rodents. The cones are stored in a damp area, since dampness prevents cones from opening and dropping their seeds. Red squirrels are agile in trees, can leap five feet, and have been clocked at 14 mph while running along the ground. Surprisingly, red squirrels are very strong swimmers. They will frequent the same eating spot, creating piles of cones and scales known as middens. Snowshoe Hare – The snowshoe hare is thought of as a rabbit, but it’s a different species altogether. Rabbits, or eastern cottontails, don’t venture any farther north than Massachusetts or southern New Hampshire. The snowshoe hare is sometimes known as the varying hare, due to the change in its coat from narrow, brown summer hairs to hollow hairs that appear white in winter. The white fur also provides higher quality insulation. The snowshoe hare’s main defense against predators is to sit still in hopes of remaining unnoticed. In the face of danger, they may thump their hind foot, make hissing or grunting noises, or give off a high pitched scream.When necessary, snowshoe hares can run up to 30 miles per hour and leap 12 feet in a single bound. Large back feet are one of the distinctive features on a snowshoe hare. These built-in snowshoes help them “float” on the surface of the snow pack while other animals of the same or heavier weight with smaller feet will sink into the snow. This ability to stay up high on the snow pack not only helps the snowshoe hare escape predators, it also helps them reach higher tree branches—an important food source—continuously through the winter as the snow accumulates. Snowshoe hares generally prefer open wooded or swampy areas where their speed helps them evade predators, but they certainly can be spotted at any point along the Four Soldiers Path. Look for them in the spring when their still mottled white fur shows up against a snowless, brown background. Fisher – Fishers are big weasels and are related to minks and martens. Fishers are not cats as is often thought; in fact, they like to eat cats. They feed largely on snowshoe hares, but they are the only predators willing to take on a porcupine. A fisher will kill the porcupine by repeatedly attacking the head and face and finally the soft belly, to avoid the deadly quills. Fishers are known to follow certain corridors that lead to food sources and will mark these corridors by creating “scent posts” by rubbing up against a tree or rock. Fishers cover their kills with leaves and dirt, and they have been known to stash carcasses in trees. Fishers are wary animals and will arch their backs like a cat (perhaps the origin of the name fisher-cat) snarl, hiss, and growl when disturbed. Fishers are sexually dimorphic—the male is almost twice as large as the female. Males are solitary except during mating, which takes place over just a two or three day period in April. Females have a long gestation period due to delayed implantation—the fertilized egg does not implant until nine to ten months later.
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