Everything is a track (especially a bone)
For a recent Discovery staff session—one of those sideways-rainy days when you still need to be outside for covid safety—we assembled, well-masked and parka-layered, under an open-walled shelter at Sandy Beach. No problem with ventilation! We spread this sheet out on a picnic table, securely anchoring the corners so it wouldn’t fly northwest over Séet ka (G-word Channel). Using an artificial dichotomous key to skulls, edited for native Southeast Alaskan genera, a few introduced critters, and some important North American mammals that kids always ask about, we delved into morphological esoterica that separate progressively finer groupings, arriving finally at solid IDs—along the way learning how much we’d never noticed about bones.
Everyone picks a skull from DSE’s collection. Doesn’t matter whether you know what it is. Arrange skulls along perimeter of the maze. Read aloud choices 1a & 1b. If your skull has no canines it’ll stay put until question 30. Meanwhile, help folks with canine skulls as we read questions 2a vs 2b . . . then 3a vs 3b, and so forth, each time advancing skulls inward until they land on a species box.
For background materials on mammal bones and tracks, including this board and skull key, you can download a resurrected collection of early Discovery graphics as a 23-page pdf. Also might want to revisit JuneauNature’s updated category page on Nature>Critters>Mammals.
