Your mission, should you choose to accept it....

[gerisullivan]

Any guesses as to what animal left scat at the edge of my yard? Bear or something else? Two snapshots are tucked behind the cut-tag. It looks darker in person.






One thing's for sure, it's not from the Jack Russell Terrier who lives next door and sometimes comes down the hill for a visit and poke around the yard.

Comments

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

That looks like Moose to me. Scroll down to the "less disctinct" examples

[maruad.livejournal.com]

I would suspect that the different appearances would depend on what the animal has been eating. Perhaps not enough fiber in Geri's example. (yes, I am kidding about the fiber).

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

You are absolutely correct about diet and appearance. :)

[maruad.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I am not used to being correct.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yowser. Moose hadn't occurred to me. Could be; my woods stretch on up into Brimfield State Forest, and there's a good bunch of wetlands in my small acreage to keep a moose happy.

When I moved in, I had several trees heavily marked with what I presumed were deer rubs, though I was surprised they went up so high. Hmmmmm....

The scat is definitely of the "less distinct" look. The pieces are very stuck together except for the smaller bits at the right edge. The whole thing looks dampish and relatively fresh.

Thanks for the info and links!

[maruad.livejournal.com]

I don't know what type of a danger moose would pose to you are a homeowner but they are notoriously dangerous when encountered on the highway. Something to do with their legs being long enough to put their body mass above the hood of your car which means that body enters the passenger compartment, via the front windshield, during a collision.

Newfoundlanders are known to have an inordinate amount of experience with this phenomena.

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Almost certainly a herbivore.

[nkcmike.livejournal.com]

That doesn't look like the bear scat I've seen, but I'm no expert (and what I saw was in Colorado).

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Out here, I'd say either elk or very large deer. I suppose it could be moose, but I'd expect moose scat to be larger, on the scale of horse poop.

And why are we all saying scat when we could be saying fewmets? Fewmets, fewmets, fewmets!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Eastern deer leave piles and scatterings of tiny pellets around here. If broken apart into individual pieces, these would be a good 4-5 times larger than normal deer fewmets. Then again, I know I have deer.

Funny-weird how I so associate the term fewmets with owl droppings, which are called pellets, not fewmets.

Good word, fewmet.

[fredcritter.livejournal.com]

Moose and squirrel, moose and squirrel--all the time, moose and squirrel....

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

My thought exactly!