By Ken Valenti

Some winged or four-legged culprit made a mess of the wooden rails on the side of the trails at Earthplace, but fear not. The Nature Detectives were on the case.

Armed with magnifying glasses and briefed on the suspects’ diets and other characteristics, the seven investigators, as young as 5 years old, set out Friday evening to solve the messy whodunnit. Or really, the whatdunnit.

Rabbit? Owl? Deer?

Audrey Killian, 5, spotted a clue when she saw what at first looked like a rut made by a snake. She later realized it was another sign of the skunk, even if she and her fellow investigators did not see the elusive, odorous villain.

Was it the rabbit they spotted scurrying away near the crime scene? An owl? A deer? A box turtle? For a while, a bobcat became the main suspect until the definitive clue – a black-and-white hair – helped them sniff out the true perpetrator: a skunk.

Tail trail!

“I found a skunk tail made a trail – a tail trail!” she said.

Of course, this was all set up by the organizers of Earthplace’s Kids’ Night Out, a Friday evening activity for kids aged 4 to 13 that the nature-focused science education center began this year. For the evening’s activity, Nature Detectives, participants probed the outdoor “crime scene” prepped by naturalist Natalie Younger. Previous outings were: Frogs, Toads and Tadpoles, Oh My! in March; and Pollinator Party in May. The next two are scheduled for Sept. 19 and Oct. 17.

Fun and educational

“Each Kids’ Night Out program has a different, fun and educational theme woven into it, designed to get kids interested in nature, with Earthplace as the backdrop,” said Nicole Grotheer, the center’s marketing and communications manager. “We wanted to create a unique program where parents could get a break and really enjoy a couple hours off-duty, knowing that the kids were going to have a great time while learning.”

Bartaco in Westport sponsors the program.

Younger, leading the evening with teacher Indi Goodman, briefed the crime-solvers on the case in a classroom, giving them charts that showed what each suspect eats and more. Once they understood the assignment, they were eager to get to the scene. Hardly had they reached the spot when Violet Seltzer-Swain, 7, exclaimed “A footprint!”

“We found hair,” said Owen Killian, Audrey’s 8-year-old brother.

They turned over logs and probed the dirt, and as they discovered and recorded clues, they also befriended a daddy long legs spider and a few worms. They discovered that a skunk’s diet of nuts, mice and bugs was further evidence of the creature’s guilt. 

“We know we saw mice coming down here, and there are bugs everywhere,” said Aaron Grotheer, 9.

As the next part of their investigation, the participants made paw prints at a table inside by pressing plaster molds of various animals’ paws into salt dough, a mixture of salt, flour and water.

Owen Killian was one of those who thought briefly that a bobcat had done the deed. That was because the incriminating hair left at the scene looked more brown-and-white to him. Later, back in the classroom, he held up a skunk tail that was among the pelts that serve as educational materials.

“The skunk learned his lesson,” he quipped.