I found some scat in my new camp down in the ravine yesterday. I think I know what it is -- based in experience in other (western) states and a bit of research. But I'm not positive. So, I thought I'd ask here since I know there are a lot of hunters on this forum. For scale, in my image, that's an oak leaf up top and a couple of beech leaves at bottom. I'm not going to bias opinions with my hypothesis. I'll just see who says what. And as long as we're talking about scat, I think it'd be fun to post pics and descriptions of scat from other species, also, and maybe stories. (I've got an interesting story to offer about scat like this that I'll offer later.) This could be a fairly $H*tty thread.
Boy... that actually looks like some of the whitetail sh!t around here. Dog loves to eat it when it's clumped up and a little wet like that.
In order to spray a little fresh scent into this scatalogical thread, I'll add two points. 1) Notice that the scat ("that the scat" = a bit of poetry on Sat-urday) in my OP is on ice. 2) If you looked directly above it -- like, 180 vertical -- you'd have been looking at this.
What would deer be eating that causes the lite "chocolate-milk" color? The clumpiness looks like pig poopy, which we have a lot of down here. Pigs that far NE??
No hogs up here ... yet. {More's the pity. I'd love open season on pork.} Yet my hypothesis is that "pig" is closer than deer (at least in shape and demeanor) to what shat that. Evidence. 1) Just like deer, other species' feces change form and texture with season and diet. 2) I saw scat of this size and shape months ago in deep snow in a large paw print 1/2 mi from that spot.
that looks NOTHING like deer scat..... deer scat: Original image thats pig ****. Pure and simple pig ****.
I've never seen bear poop like that (it's always just a big pile) and I'm pretty sure cats don't **** like that either.
I agree.I am thinking that is what he thinks as his pig comment. Bears are closely related to pigs. All the bear poop I have seen has purple colors and is full of seeds . I have only seen it in the road and during berry harvest season. Kind of looks like seed filled colorfully soft serve ice cream. Carnivores wolves, cats, coyotes, almost always has hair in it. And a noticable amount. He also said it as pig like behavior? The only thing in the Maine woods I can think of that has pig like behavior other than the bear that is related is possibly the raccoon. That poop is too big to be any raccoon I have seen.....
^ Ha! ^ But nope. Not mine. And I propose not human. I've never seen human crap like that, and even though I've been down there several times per week since January, I've not seen another person on foot the whole time. That camp is about 70 m off a main snowmobile trail, and I've seen s'mobiles on it, but no one would walk that far in to take a dump. Plus until a few days ago when bare (not bear) ground started appearing, it's been under 1 - 4' of snow. To be clear, "bear poop" is one hypothesis -- one possibility -- but not the only one. I don't "think" anything about it yet, meaning, I've drawn no conclusion yet; far too early for that. I have more questions than answers at this point. What I can say with certainty is this. 1) Deer poop and bear poop -- and probably most other kinds of poop (at least for more generalist feeders) -- is variable. Deer poop -- and I propose, bear poop -- does take different forms depending on A) what the animal was eating; B) season (which has much to do up here with what the animal was eating); C) age and health of the animal; D) other factors. Do a search on "deer scat images" and you'll find some like this even though the more common shape is small pellets (and there are many hundreds of pounds of that in this woods). Bear scat is likewise variable -- I know this from backpacking days in the southern Rockies where I saw black bear scat often. It usually looks more like a human turd, but larger, and only has berries in during berry season (which means not in winter). A quick (not thorough) search on "bear scat image" yielded a bunch of images, including this one that's not far from what I saw. Again, not enough to make any conclusions, but enough to keep the question open for now. And black bear (but not grizzly) are common in this area. I'm about half way up the state from south to north, NW of Bangor, on the edge of some of the wildest, most rugged, remote landscapes and ecosystems on the US east coast. My town has (or at least until recently had) the last traffic light on the US east coast going north to Quebec, which is hours away. We joke that there's not much north of here but trees, swamps, mountains, raccoons, deer, bear and black flies. 2) So far, there are no feral hogs in this state (Maine), at least no reports of which I am aware. I have little to no doubt that as climate continues to change, they will extend their range here from the mid-west and south. But they're not here yet. 3) This "little" patch of woods (about 50 acres) borders a "residential" area (houses in a very old small town) about 1/2 mile from a commercial area, and a fairground. Deer are in large numbers here. They seem to intuit that they're safe in this area because they cannot be hunted this close to town -- regulations prohibit hunting this close to a residential area. That's all I know at this point. Next time I'm down in the ravine, I'm going to do a little more poop analysis, and use a stick to dissect that poop (and others that I find) to see what's in it. Certainly no berries -- we're still in snow melt, and leaf out hasn't happened yet. Vegetation? Seeds? Bones? Hair? Insect remains? ... I would have done it when I took the pic in the OP, but I was there on other business (video shooting, camp camouflage, and hammock hanging experimentation, and light was waning ...).
What a ****ty morning... I took these pics on the morning dog walk. I'm pretty sure this is all whitetail deer. Here's some of the clumpier stuff.
@Stone only way to be sure is a taste test. If it tastes like ****, it's ****. Do it for science, man!
