Scat (animal poop) question/identification

[4get gto]

Boy you guys really know your *****.... :thumbsup:

 

[2LaneCruzer]

If it tastes salty, it could be from a Porcupine. [ I am sure bear scat changes over the year depending on their food source and health. Just like yours does day to day. The bear scat I run into was fairly dry, large, and in a big spiral. Had hair and some bones in it, probably from scavenging road kill next to the road in the Spring. ] Let me know about the salty thing.......

Reminds me of my old biology course. We were studying diabetes, and one guy in the class said he looked up the word "insipid" (diabetes insipidus) and it means "tasteless", and asked why they named it that. The prof said in the old days, tasting was one way they used to assess the characteristics of a substances. The urine from someone with Diabetes Insipidus had little or no taste; the urine from someone with Diabetes Mellitis tastes sweet. It was bad enough to have to pee in a beaker and test it with pH paper; I think we were all glad we weren't taking the course 100 years ago.

 

[jfh28]

we get a lot of black bear thru here especially this time of year......the young males are looking for territory and there's the momma with her cubs roaming around too......those pics look like what I find around here.....bears are basically lazy and will eat what is easiest to find.......and their poop will reflect that......not having seeds or berries in it just means something else was easier to find to eat.....bears also apparently have a very strong scent on them as the dogs will always go on high alert smelling in the woods when one has been around........Jack

 

[Code54]

Good info - thanks!

I stuck the game camera in the woods around that area so hopefully I will get some critters on film.

 

[jfh28]

warning.......I've done that and if your camera has an autoflash on it the bear will be given orange demon eyes in the pic that will scare the bejeebers out of you.....you'll never walk in the woods again..... :laughing: .......Jack

Good info - thanks!

I stuck the game camera in the woods around that area so hopefully I will get some critters on film.

 

[teejk]

we get a lot of black bear thru here especially this time of year......the young males are looking for territory and there's the momma with her cubs roaming around too......those pics look like what I find around here.....bears are basically lazy and will eat what is easiest to find.......and their poop will reflect that......not having seeds or berries in it just means something else was easier to find to eat.....bears also apparently have a very strong scent on them as the dogs will always go on high alert smelling in the woods when one has been around........Jack

Sounds like Wisconsin. Bears were restricted to the northern 1/4 of the state (largely national forest). Momma bear will deal with cubs for 2 years then kick them out so she can get new cubs. Bears are very territorial so the old cubs have to find new ground and now probably cover 1/2 of the state with random sightings all the way down to the Illinois border and beyond. Wildlife management in the state is more an art than a science.

 

[geteh]

No takers yet - huh. Well - the one problem on ID - the "shape" is little help. It obviously from a carnivore or omnivore. So the most likely candidates - coyote or raccoon. However - it might be bear or even wolf or badger. It's just real hard to tell.

The color & the hair tell us it's from an animal that ate something with blood. Black usually = blood. The hundreds of coyote droppings I've seen around my place are always well defined - like a large cigar and usually black. Raccoon is the same shape, smaller, but can be most any color and seldom has hair mixed in.

The coyotes around here mark their presence almost daily with droppings in my driveway - right where it dumps out onto the yard grass. Right in the center of the driveway and very obvious.
Sounds like Wisconsin. Bears were restricted to the northern 1/4 of the state (largely national forest). Momma bear will deal with cubs for 2 years then kick them out so she can get new cubs. Bears are very territorial so the old cubs have to find new ground and now probably cover 1/2 of the state with random sightings all the way down to the Illinois border and beyond scat identification. Wildlife management in the state is more an art than a science.

Does anyone know how to identify animal scat? Will the app do it? Or would it be better to post it here for identification? Thanks in advance!

 

[RobertEH]

post your photo - everyone loves a good poop thread.