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You may not realise it but the Oulu region is teaming with wildlife. Antje Neumann looks at the wonders of spring for Oulu’s animal enthusiasts
April has arrived, that means that spring is coming. In the Oulu region, the beginning of spring doesn’t mean that nature is getting green. Spring means long days with lots of light, sometimes plus degrees during the daytime and sometimes snow fall. Night frosts are still frequent. In the cold and dark months of the year December – February, food is scarce in the wild with no vegetation. Animals have to live off their fat reserves. Herbivores can only eat the few plants they can find under the snow, tree bark, buds or lichen. And they save energy by moving about as little as possible. Voles and mice spend most of the time in tunnel systems under the snow searching for food like moss and plants. Grouse build themselves shelters into the snow in which they are protected from the cold and predators leaving only occasionally in search of food. Predators have a difficult time in winter too because of their prey being inactive and therefore difficult to find. In some cases the predators' hunting grounds even become inaccessible, as in the case of the otter which lives mainly on fish and has to cope with rivers being frozen over. Otters start searching for fish in open water such as rapids. In spring, when the days are getting longer and warmer, animals wake up and are on the prowl for both food and love. Even now, most wild animals are hard to spot but with a lot of snow on the ground you can work out which animals you’ve seen from their tracks. How good are you in reading tracks? You can test it by guessing what the tracks on the pictures are from. Solutions are below. 1.  Moose have two toes in the front and make foot prints which are a bit similar to that of a reindeer. 2.  A dog. The track can be easily distinguished from a fox track since the fox puts its feet exactly one behind each other in one line. 3.  Yeti. No, to be honest, a person who has been walking with snow shoes. 4.  Snow grouse 5.  An otter has been fishing in the creek and left a track when leaving the water again. 6.  Snow hare tracks can be found nearly everywhere where there are small deciduous trees. In winter and spring, hares eat leave buds and bark. 7.  A black grouse has been flying away and left foot tracks and tracks of its wings in the snow. 8.  A black grouse has left its snow shelter and walked away. 9.  Although squirrels usually spend most of their times in trees, they sometimes also leave tracks in the snow. 10.  This is a track made by very small feet: a mouse track
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