Animals in Motion
Week of January 18, 2026 – January 24, 2026
by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator
Have you taken time to think about the many different ways that animals around us move? While we spend most of our time walking and running to get around the world, other animals are flying, swimming, waddling, hopping, and slithering around us. Every species is uniquely adapted for moving in their own ways to find food and escape predators. As I write this blog, a White-breasted Nuthatch is inching up and down the Silver Maple tree trunk outside my window. Nuthatches are the only birds around us that routinely forage headfirst down tree trunks, using their sharp claws to balance as they sneak up on unsuspecting bugs.
One of my favorite Nature in the City lessons is going on right now, and it is all about how animals move. This lesson is for kindergarteners, who are always intrigued when we wheel a cart into their classroom containing a very large covered box. We give them a chance to guess what kind of animal is inside the box, which can lead to a great variety of answers. “Is it an elephant?” one student might say. We remind them that although the box is large, it isn’t THAT large. Also, the animal lives in Syracuse (but not at the zoo). “What about a little spider?” I remind them that we wouldn’t put a tiny spider in such a large box. When I mention that the animal has fur, sometimes they come up with very silly answers like a hairy frog or a fluffy butterfly! Eventually and sometimes with a few more hints, they guess that it is a fox.
When the taxidermied Gray Fox is revealed, the students always have plenty of questions and observations. They notice the large, pointy ears that help foxes to hear rodents rustling under leaves and snow. The nose is also powerful, allowing foxes to smell the trails of their prey. Gray Foxes can even climb trees like cats! The fox’s paws help them to walk stealthily through the forest with barely a sound, and we practice walking like a fox around the classroom. After all of the excitement of seeing a real fox, this is also a good chance for the students to calm their energy and get ready for the next activities.
One of these activities involves passing around feely bags, in which the students reach into several bags and guess what is inside. They include turkey feathers, cottontail rabbit fur, and a beaver tail. We talk about and act out how these animals move as well, by flying, running, hopping, and swimming. Imagine if we could do all of these things as well as the animals can!
Although winter is a time when many animals slow down, there are quite a few that are still very active. Squirrels, foxes, weasels, deer, rabbits, and many kinds of birds are out and about all around us. These animals need to work hard to find food despite the snow and cold. Sometimes they are hard to spot, but snow makes it easier to see the stories of their travels. What kind of winter animals have you noticed, or have you found tracks and signs that they left behind?
We invite our members to enjoy a weekly blog written by our naturalists. Every blog will be uniquely different but always inspired by nature. We may share a memory from a recent hike at The Woods or teach you about an animal or plant that lives on the preserve. No matter the topic, we will be sharing with you our passion for nature and celebrating the connections we all have to the natural world. Each blog will be connected to a weekly set of activities and ideas to help you put nature in your hands, even if you’re at home!