If you thought most forest animals hibernated in winter, or at least slept through the night, take a stroll through the woods the morning after a snowfall.

Crisscrossing tracks reveal four-legged creatures constantly on the move, and if you examine the footprints even casually you’ll learn a lot about their behavior.

“That’s what’s so interesting – the tracks tell a story,” Maggie Jones, executive director of the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center in Mystic said the other day while leading me on a hike along fresh snow-covered trails at the Peace Sanctuary off River Road. You can soon observe which animals are hunting, which are hunted, which may be looking for a mate or marking territory – the whole circle of life, spread out on an expanse of white.

Though serene and densely wooded, with panoramic views of the Mystic River, this 45-acre former girl’s camp now maintained by the nature center is hardly the forest primeval. More of a backyard wilderness, it abuts a handful of private homes and roads, and traffic from Interstate 95 less than a half-mile north provides a steady background din, depending on wind direction, to the chatter of squirrels, squawks of crows, and occasional barks of coyotes and fox.

The point is you don’t have to venture far from civilization to observe nature.

Squirrels, of course, are the most ubiquitous critter for all seasons, and their track patterns in snow pretty much reflect the squirrely behavior we frequently see on dry land and pavement: darting this way and that, scampering up and down trees.

Maggie and I saw squirrel tracks about 30 seconds into our hike. The larger pair of prints in the front were made by the squirrel’s hind feet and the smaller pair in the rear were made by the front feet as it hopped like a rabbit. Other squirrel tracks also appeared.

“All squirrel tracks lead to Maggie’s bird feeder,” she explained.

Soon afterward we encountered a single track on a trail veering away from the bird feeder that had been made by a larger animal.

Maggie stooped down and examined oblong prints that measured slightly longer than 2 inches and contained claw marks barely visible in powdery snow.

“Coyote,” she said.

Tracks showed the animal stayed on the well-maintained trail – larger predators often take advantage of human-made paths to avoid snags and briars, while smaller prey will seek the cover of underbrush. At one point the prints made a short semi-circle that surrounded a yellow stain in the snow.

“Pee break,” Maggie noted.

Not much long afterward we saw a second, slightly smaller set of similarly shaped prints.

“Fox,” Maggie said. Both red fox and gray fox populate southeastern Connecticut. While with red fox are slightly larger, without another set of prints for comparison we couldn’t tell which made the tracks.

When they’re out making the rounds foxes often walk in a straight line with an alternating (left-right-left-right) pattern, but they also can trot, spring on two feet or even gallop.

“Right now is prime time for viewing tracks” (when there’s snow) because animals are becoming more active in preparation for the spring mating season, Maggie explained. The nature center, incidentally, located on Pequotsepos Road, has scheduled an animal-tracking program 10 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 4. For more information visit the center’s website, dpnc.org.

Surprisingly the other morning we did not see any deer or rabbit tracks, which I commonly observe while traipsing on paths behind my home and elsewhere in the region.

Deer, of course, have cloven hooves that leave well-defined tracks, while rabbit tracks are similar to those made by squirrels, except their toes are smaller and rounded rather than longer and more finger-like.

Some animals, including skunks, woodchucks and opossum, waddle from side to side and drag their tails; mink and otter tend to slide their bellies on flat ground while “paddling” their legs through snow.

If you see a print containing a triangular-shaped heel pad and four smaller toes with claws, chances are it was made by a dog. A cat print, less symmetrical, has a heel pad that is about the same size as the toes. If you see a big heel print and big toes, run in the opposite direction: It might have been made by a mountain lion.

And if you see a really big print – about a foot long, with three toes – you’re either tracking a dinosaur or have been taken in by my prank plywood cutout, attached to a 2x4 handle for easy stamping in the snow.

I startled my neighbor with it following our last storm, and after jumping about 3 feet in the air she raced around shouting and taking pictures before I burst out laughing.

Maggie caught on pretty quickly though when we stumbled upon the tracks I stealthily put down earlier.

“Oh, no! A dinosaur! It’s Bigfoot!” she cried in mock alarm.

I guess you just can’t fool Mother Nature, or the director of a nature center.