Case of the Missing Arctic Fox and Other True Animal Mysteries for You to Solve

Case of the Missing Arctic Fox and Other True Animal Mysteries for You to Solve — page 3
CASE CRACKED A MIDNIGHT SNACK Scientists can't always find the actual animals when there's a mystery to solve But often they can find clues like animal tracks These clues help show how animals act in nature The tracks in the snow in this mystery have four toes on the front foot and five toes on the hind foot Rodent tracks usually look like that Many rodents are small and live in pastures It's likely the small tracks belong to some kind of rodent The crescent shaped marks at the end of the tracks are the shape of an owl's outstretched wing Birds eat rodents So From the clues we can re create what happened A hungry owl spotted a rodent in the moonlight It swooped down and caught the rodent When the owl took flight again its wings beat against the snow leaving marks that look like snow angels Sitting in the tree the owl ate the rodent bones and all But an owl can't digest everything Later it coughed up the bones in a furry pellet an owl pellet rodent a mammal with long front teeth used for gnawing