Treading on thin ice?

Thanks to a spurt of unseasonably warm weather here in central Maine, I took a walk on our riverside trail yesterday. It was a joyous alternative to the gym, where I have to dodge clueless people who insist on hogging the narrow indoor track by walking three abreast.

Looking out at the frozen Kennebec River, I spotted a set of animal tracks extending all the way across the snow-covered ice from my vantage point on the west bank to the opposite shore. I couldn’t make out what type of tracks they were, but I recalled seeing a fox cross the river on a similar day several winters back.

Do wild animals have some way of knowing when river ice is thick enough to hold their weight? Or do they just take a chance and hope for the best?

Dogs don’t seem to have any special powers in that department; we read periodically about someone rescuing a pooch who fell through thin ice. If that leads you to believe that canines lack smarts, then you'd have to draw the same conclusion about humans. Snowmobilers drive onto - and even through - thin ice early and late in the season with amazing frequency, year after year after year. This happens even here in Maine, where you'd think a lifelong familiarity with winter would make folks cautious - and smarter about such things.