Identifying Scat

At the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management we receive a number of requests to identify scats that landowners have found on their property. Here are a few tips to help you to help us identify scats.

Be careful around scat. Don't touch it with your bare hands and stay upwind. Don't breath material from the scat, you don't want to expose yourself to any disease or infectious organisms.

1. Location, location, location. We need to know where you live as animals live in different places. If you reside in Massachusetts, it is highly unlikely that the scat would have been left by a wolf. 

1b. Additionally, consider the habitat. Different animals live in different environments. Meadow and prairie voles are, you guessed it, found in grass lands not in the middle of the forest.

1.c. Positioning. Is the scat located along a trail? In the open, under a tree, near the water?

2. Length and width. People generally tell us the length of the scat, but they neglect to tell us the width. We need both.

3. Shape. Are the droppings, pellets, tubular, plops, pointed on one or both ends, twisted, segmented?  Be detailed.

4. Can you identify any items in the scat? Hair, seeds?

5. Is there any white in the scat? Normally, we don't care about color because color is often a reflection of what the animal ate. White, however, is different because it normally signifies nitrogen which birds and lizards excrete.

I hope you find these questions helpful. Remember though, scat identification is an art as much as a science. But it is little more than a shot in the dark without all the necessary information.

For more information on scat identification visit Scat Identification
Stephen Vantassel, CWCP, ACP