The Tale of the ‘Moose’ Tracks

One of our favourite things to do while waiting for the chairlift to ferry us up the mountain is animal track spotting. 

We spot them all the time!  Deer, birds, once a bear.  But mostly moose, or so we thought! 

They seemed to be everywhere!  Zigzagging around trees up crazily steep terrain, paths crossing each other, doubling back - there were so many! 

I thought it was funny that the tracks didn’t seem very deep.  But the moose is a mountain creature after all; navigating deep snowdrifts is something it would have to evolve for.

It looked like nature had given the moose snowshoe-like weight distribution, which let it saunter through the mountains like the nonchalant Legolas of the animal kingdom.

How clever!

We pointed the tracks out to our Canadian friends. 

“Look!  Moose tracks!  They’re everywhere!”

Our friends would smile and make appropriately interested noises.

Then one day I was talking to Lisa about how weird it is that their tracks are so shallow - even with their big cloven hooves they seemed uncannily light-footed considering their weight.

She showed me a picture of a moose track. 

I drew her a picture of the tracks I’d been seeing criss-crossing through the trees for two whole winter seasons.

She smiled pityingly at me.

Then kindly and patiently explained that they were rabbit tracks.

The hind legs of a bunny rabbit bouncing through the snow while it’s little tail makes a wee dimple behind it.

So dainty!

So sweet!

And so utterly, obviously explainable.

pictures are not mine (google image search)