Loving Your Lake: Spotting Signs of Wildlife Around the Water
Lakes are a staple of the Canadian summer, providing the population with tons of activities every year. With Canadians still stuck at home, hoping for the eventual reduction of lock down restrictions, we want to make your first visit back to a lake, river, or any sort of aquatic environment as exciting and engaging as possible.
One of the many ways to do this, is by looking for signs of animal life! Our lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams all support diverse aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. That being said, they are also some of the most heavily littered environments. During our 2019 Love Your Lakes project, our volunteers picked up 108, 069 pieces of litter from the shores of Lake Ontario. One of the reasons we work so hard to clean up the Lake is to help protect the wildlife that live there. To truly understand how biodiverse our aquatic environments are, look out for these signs of wildlife next time you’re down by the water!
Animal Tracks
Footprints, although seemingly the most obvious sign of wildlife, are very much enhanced when an animal is near a body of water. Even in the depths of a city park, a muddy bank by a creek will no doubt have some tracks from a passing raccoon, skunk, fox, or squirrel grabbing a drink or just walking through. Because bodies of water already draw in animals, the wet, impressionable earth beside them is a great spot to look for tracks.
Chewed Up Stumps and Branches
If you’re near a wooded area that connects to a larger body of water (like a lake or sizable pond) and you see any small stumps, with the distinct “pointed and chewed” tops, the culprit was likely a beaver. Although beavers are mostly active at night, they can often be spotted swimming with just their eyes poking out at dusk and dawn. Another sure sign of beavers is spotting a beaver dam, or lodge, indicating they have been busy shaping the environment to meet their own needs!
Rocks and logs that are dry, and jut out of the water are great opportunities for spotting wildlife. On a sunny day, you may see turtles basking in the sun on rocks like the one pictured above. These rocks also provide resting places for many species of waterbirds, like seagulls, cormorants, ducks, and herons. Although they might not always be visible, a “white-cap” of bird poop on a rock, is indicative that a bird does frequent it, and might be spotted at a later time.
Aquatic Vegetation
If you are near a marshier area, where the water is more stagnant and protected by reeds and other aquatic plants, there is a good chance you may stumble onto some smaller aspects of the ecosystem. Frog spawn, the gelatinous eggs of frogs that sit in water until the tadpoles are ready to emerge, can often be seen in spring through summer, and means that frogs do indeed live in the area. While it is important they remain undisturbed so they can hatch, frog spawn is an indicator that there is a diverse underwater habitat of invertebrates and small aquatic animals, providing food for the adult frogs. Waterbugs and other small organisms can often be seen on the surface of water, or swimming in denser foliage like the water lilies on the shore seen in the image above.
Mussel Shells
Often unknown to many, freshwater mussels inhabit most lakes in Ontario. While most are larger than their invasive counterpart, the Zebra Mussel, the 41 native mussel species can provide food to animals like river otters, minks, or muskrats. Mussels, when alive, can be tricky to spot, as they live on the bottom of lakes, rivers, or ponds, usually in the mud. However, when animals eat them, their leftover shells can often be found scattered in shallow areas of water, indicating the presence of wildlife. Freshwater mussels are not only an important food source for animals, but they filter out pollutants and are vital to a healthy freshwater ecosystem.
In Summary
When it is safe and encouraged to get out and explore again, make sure you’re on the lookout for all of these signs of animal life. Even if wildlife is hiding, or not around when people are passing through, these signs in the environment are both reassurance and motivation for why it is so important to protect and preserve our natural bodies of water from litter!
Program Assistant, A Greener Future