HANCOCK COUNTY, Ohio (WLIO) -Â The Hancock Park District gave people a unique experience, leading a hike to a local stream where participants tried to catch a small species of fish known as darters.
The park district hopes the event helped showcase the variety of wildlife found right here in the local area.
Darters are a colorful group of small fish named for their behavior of darting along the bottom of streams and rivers. Although the darters were the main focus of the hike, participants discovered a variety of other wildlife in the stream, including crayfish and a bullfrog. The park district hopes the event helped showcase the variety of wildlife found right here in the local area.
"A lot of our aquatic life wildlife are found only in streams, most of the fish in Ohio. So typically we think of like large mouse, bass, catfish, bluegill, think about those fish, but most of the species of fish are found in small streams throughout the state of Ohio. So we try to get people in the streams to not just find some of these cool fish, but some of the other cool wildlife as well. Like some of our freshwater mussels, we found a frog today, some crayfish, and just trying to get people out in the stream and exploring nature a little bit differently than what they're used to in the parks," said Tim Kleman, program specialist with the Hancock Park District.
Kleman encourages everyone to take some time to explore nature, saying you never know what you might find.
