BRATTLEBORO — Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC) will be offering Valentine Specials of Chocolate Scat Samplers for sale at the Feb. 6 Gallery Walk to benefit scholarships for their nature vacation camps.
For many years now, BEEC has been leading groups through the woods of southern Vermont, teaching them to read the signs of nature.
Tracking is much more then looking for paw prints in the ground, explained Patti Smith, BEEC's expert naturalist and tracker. When you track, you observe all the signs left by the animal as they pass. One common marker to look for is what the wildlife biologists refer to as scat - the fecal matter of animals.
Scat markers are extremely useful, as they not only indicate a particular animal has wandered past, but also gives information about their diet, according to the BEEC. Naturalists come to have a strange affection for scat, and feel great delight upon a siting.
BEEC's special Valentine Scat is composed of chocolates with ingredients added to resemble and suggest the mammal's diets. Sesame seeds and dried cranberries stand for the berries and seeds found in the diet of a raccoon, for example, and shredded wheat resembles fur from the coyote's dinner.
Brattleboro Union High School students from Sandy Cormier's food class help make the chocolates.