![]() Raptors and even crows and kingfishers cough up pellets that contain all the bones, fur, and feathers of the previous day’s dinner. That means that if you’re in predator country and you don’t see much bone in the droppings, you’re looking at traces left by a cougar or bobcat. On the other hand, wild felids, or cats, digest about 90 percent of the bones they eat canids (wolves, for example) process only 80 percent. In autumn, bears leave behind colorful piles (often purplish in hue) laden with nuts, berries, seeds, and other edibles high in protein and fat. An oily summer pile indicates that trout from local spawning streams topped the menu. A large pile of hair-filled poop in spring suggests a grizzly that, after its long winter’s nap, has gorged on meat-probably bison, moose, deer, or elk. To verify, correlate the scat with the size of the hoofprints males’ tracks are larger, up to 61?2 inches long.Īnimal scat also tells you what food has been eaten. With moose, for instance, if the nuggets are elongated, chances are they were left by a female. Geist, you can decipher what feathered or furred creature left the calling card, whether it’s predator or prey, and its gender. “Scat can tell us plenty about an animal,” says Valerius Geist, Ph.D., a retired mammalogist from the University of Calgary, Alberta, who for years has studied the spoor and footprints of Canadian Rockies‘ animals. Nonetheless, it does illustrate an important point: Wildlife excrement speaks volumes about your favorite wilderness if you open your eyes-to say nothing of your mouth-to the messages before you. ![]() ![]() Now, whether this is a vanishing art passed from parent to child, or merely a campfire tale meant to be told at mealtime, your guess is as good as mine. Assessing the delicacies of the dung supposedly helps the tundra dweller age an accompanying track, and thus determine how close the critter is and where it’s headed. Such a bond with the Earth also breeds expert tracking skills, among which is a distinctive, albeit unsavory, technique used when a hunter comes upon a steaming, moist pile of animal scat: He pops a piece in his mouth. Legend has it that the Inuit people of Arctic Canada are so in tune with the land, they can predict the lay of a snowflake before it hits the ground. Omnivores, such as bears eat berries and their scat may show some berries.Get full access to Outside Learn, our online education hub featuring in-depth fitness, nutrition, and adventure courses and more than 2,000 instructional videos when you sign up for Outside+ What is in the scat? Do you see any hair? Berries? Something else? What an animal eats often comes through in the scat.įor example, carnivores eat meat, which sometimes includes the hair or fur of animals and the scat of carnivores may include that hair or fur. For example, both a coyote and mouse have tubular scat, but a mouse’s is much smaller in size. About how many inches long is the scat?ĭifferent animals have different size scat. Take a look at the scat and make an estimate as to how large it is. The most obvious ones that are easy to tell apart are tubular, pellets, or plop like? Animal scat or poop comes in a few general shapes. Here are three tips to help you narrow down what type of animal that scat may have come from. ![]() However, if you can’t identify that scat you have no idea what animals are around. Finding animal scat is a great way to know there are animals in an area. Anytime that you and your family go exploring in the great outdoors you may come across some animal scat. There are two good ways to tell if an animal is an area without seeing the actual animal – scat and animal tracks. I wonder what animal this came from? Photo via Flickr.ĭo you know how to identify animal scat? Here are 3 tips to help you figure out what kind of animal that scat you found while hiking may have come from. ![]()
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