I have been a frequent visitor of Emmenegger Nature Park as I love the ruggedness of the trails as well as the awesome cliffs, some of which offer serene views of the Meramec River. You are almost guaranteed to see wildlife while immersing yourself in the tranquil and heavily forested areas. Personally, I have seen deer, raccoons, hawks, turkey vultures, turtles, toads, countless insects and plants, and unfortunately ticks. I have heard there are many other species to see on the 93-acre area, including foxes, coyotes, snakes, skinks, rabbits, skunks, and who knows what else. 93 acres is a lot of land for all kinds of wildlife to thrive with very little human interaction. The Meramec River provides plenty of water and food for wildlife in the area and creates many offshoot creeks, which are a personal favorite to explore. It is always fun to look for tracks in the mud along the creeks to see what animals are present in the area, even though we may never see them. The forest has an abundance of food for primary and secondary consumers, there are wild berries, vegetation, tasty bugs, and plenty of prey. Emmenegger’s has a mix of hardwood forest and lowlands along the valley and river banks, the possibilities of what flora or fauna you will uncover are almost endless.

Some species, as I am learning, are much easier to identify than others, as there are many different subspecies that look similar. Insects and birds, in particular, can be almost impossible to identify unless you can have a very close examination of the specimen, and even then sometimes DNA is necessary. Other animals, like groundhogs or opossums, are pretty easy to identify since there are not any other look-alike subspecies in this region. Furthermore, other animals are difficult to identify simply because you see them for a split second before they retreat or flee the area. Even identifying animal tracks can be tricky as they may be made when an animal is running or have been trampled on by other animals. This inability to confidently identify an animal, due to elusive behavior and strange tracks, is exactly what I was experiencing on my evening stroll at Emmenegger Nature Park.

The weather lately has been gorgeous, and with many animals leaving hibernation now is a great time to go out and explore. Most of the time when I go out, I do not have a particular species in mind, I kind of just go with the flow and see what I will uncover. I started off heading towards one of the creeks that I find a lot of tracks around and I was able to see the area is home to at least a few mammalian species. There were tracks from deer, squirrel, opossums, and raccoons. There were a few tracks representing birds in the thick mud near the creek’s edge, but their singing and gawking made it evident they were thriving. I saw a pair of Bluejays raising the alarm to my presence, but they eventually lost interest in me as I meandered down along the creek.

There were a few minnow schools swimming about in the shallow creek and I stopped to watch for a few minutes, debating on whether or not to try and get some photos of them. Just then a fairly large rock came tumbling down from the edge of the cliff overlooking the creek and broke the water’s peace with a huge kerplunk. Quickly I looked up but was unable to see anything up there, or at least nothing up there was moving. It is surprising how camouflaged some animals can be though, for all I know there could be a deer up there who moved just enough to dislodge the rock and was now sitting still, hoping to blend in. As I stood there, gazing up the cliff, scouring for any sign of life, I realized something. The momentum with which that rock came hurling down didn’t seem to align with the height of the cliff, which was only about 30 feet or so. Most people would have probably shrugged this off and stayed where they were…or maybe even would have left the area. I did neither of these things and decided to go up.

A little further down the creek, I found a few stones and debris that protruded just enough out of the water for me to cross, that was the easy part. The cliff climb was not exactly an easy feat to conquer. There was a lot of loose earth and rock to traverse, which was done by clinging to roots and gravity-defying trees that tempted their longevity by growing out at almost 45° angles. After making it to the top of the cliff and quietly trekking it back to where the rock would have fallen from I was hoping to see something. But there was nothing there…except for a very strong musky smell. It smelled like a combination of skunk, wet dog, and the oniony smell of intense body odor. Cautiously I checked my surroundings as my first thought was that a male deer may be around as they can get to smelling pretty strong during rut season. But the mating season for deer is the fall-winter, so that wouldn’t make much sense. I hadn’t had enough time to even contemplate another culprit for the stench when my attention turned to the loud knocking sound that was emanating off in the distance. There were two loud banging sounds, imagine someone hitting a tree with a bat as hard as they can two times, back to back. Again, most people would have probably left but my curiosity always gets the best of me.

At this point, I assume that there is another hiker out here just having fun in the woods, maybe making a lean-to or something along those lines. I have seen several lean-tos built in Emmenegger so the idea didn’t seem that far-fetched and if it was a person, maybe they know of some cool spots to explore. As I start walking towards the direction of the noise though I start thinking more about this whole situation. My brain is keeping pace with my feet and thoughts are racing. For starters, my wife knows I am in Emmenegger but if something happens how would anyone know where I am as my cell reception sucks out here and the sun is starting to set. Secondly, what the hell was that smell…lean-tos aren’t built out of skunk and funk, at least not since the 1970s. Finally, my brain has me convinced that there is a black bear somewhere nearby. When I first got to the creek area, I thought I saw something that was grayish-black moving out of the corner of my eye but when I turned I saw nothing. And the odor did have the smell that a lot of predatory animals have, or so I have been told they have by podcasts and nature documentaries.

My approach towards the sound now crept to an almost complete halt and that’s when I noticed the tracks. As I said earlier it can be difficult to identify animal tracks for non-professionals, but this track was definitely not canine, feline, nor ungulate (hoofed animals) and since the St. Louis Zoo no longer uses Emmenegger Park as an exotic animal breeding ground, the possibilities of what left these tracks were pretty limited. I scoped out my surroundings yet again and saw nothing around me but lush green forest stretching in all directions. I quickly took out my phone, took a picture of the track and started making my way back in the direction from which I came. The track had five visible toes but no claw marks, perhaps the bear was moving quickly and slid as it moved through the woods.

My heart was pounding in my chest at the possibility that I may have to scream at a bear (this is one way to defend yourself against black bears) or shank a bear with my trusty 6-inch army knife if the yelling doesn’t work. Honestly, neither of these options were something that I really wanted to be doing. I also know that you should never run in the woods as predator instinct will kick in and you will be chased if indeed a large predator is around, so I fought the urge to book it and moved at the pace that mall walkers seem to prefer. I had hiked a good 30 minutes or so from the cliff that I had climbed and was about 2/3rds of the way back when I heard rustling and guttural breathing sounds off to my right. It seemingly came from nowhere, as if I had just happened to startle something that had been in the brush. I have heard folktales that the forest falls silent when something bad is about to happen and the birds were still chirping away so that brought me some solace as I slowly looked over trying not to make eye contact with whatever it may be. But there was nothing. I was in somewhat of a clearing if we want to speak generally, and the line of vegetation the sound was coming from was probably anywhere from 25-30 feet away. Standing still, I took my phone out and turned on the zoom to try and get a better look of what it may be as I would rather not turn my back at this point. As I turned my camera on and adjusted my zoom to 15x magnification, I searched the tree line and that is when I saw something I will never forget. I am sure you have heard stories of people’s fight or flight instinct taking over and they no longer have any control over their body, like you’re watching everything happen from the third person. Well, let me tell you that actually happens. I watched myself turn off the camera after seeing whatever this animal was and ran faster than Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Suddenly I was frantically trying to scale down the cliff, I made it halfway before I lost my footing and sliding ensued. Thankfully, I was able to slow myself down a bit so I didn’t go into full tumble mode, but I definitely hit the water with a bit more of a splash than the rock that came down earlier did. Still startled I looked up but saw nothing approaching me. With no time wasted, I started making my way back to the car and that’s when I saw another track. Remember earlier when I said I saw a grayish-black something move out of the corner of my eye as I was walking along the creek? This track was in the vicinity of where that something would have been, and this track looked fresh. Again, no idea what this animal was, but I wasn’t waiting to find out. I made a mad dash for the car and got onto Interstate 44 as fast as I could. Since Friday I have thumbed through all my books, and searched the internet trying to find an animal native to North America that matched these tracks. Unfortunately, as of this writing, no match has been found and I still can’t identify this creature.

References:

https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/emmenegger-nature-park