Strange poo or pellets ID help
- Thread starter KAE1
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I've seen something similar, about an inch and a half long, 3/4" dia and made mainly of wasps bodies!!!
Don't think it was badgers though, as it was 2 miles across open moorland and on top of a trig point!
Don't think it was badgers though, as it was 2 miles across open moorland and on top of a trig point!
Could it have been the stuff left after rain has washed the rest away? It looks like it ad been raining when the picture was taken.
Bet it must have scratched a bit on the way out!
According to Bang and Dalstrom it sounds like a Gull pellet - 8cm long, 2cm wide composed of almost entirely insect (and occasionally just cherry stones)
Red
Red
EdS
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Paganwolf
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
As you found it by a badger set id think it was in or on the edge of forest or woodland? ive seen these before made up of lesser stag beetle and ground beetle shells that have been in the hunting grounds of a pair of little owls so by my reconing they was little owl casts (not having seen one chuck one up its an educated guess, location, diet etc ) Badger turd looks like that in the pick when they have good forage of worms and slugs, seems to go through them like a good curry 
ps thinking about it there is a badgers set in the vecinity although the casts are small and not in scraped latrenes. Just my take on things
ps thinking about it there is a badgers set in the vecinity although the casts are small and not in scraped latrenes. Just my take on things
As you found it by a badger set id think it was in or on the edge of forest or woodland? ive seen these before made up of lesser stag beetle and ground beetle shells that have been in the hunting grounds of a pair of little owls so by my reconing they was little owl casts (not having seen one chuck one up its an educated guess, location, diet etc ) Badger turd looks like that in the pick when they have good forage of worms and slugs, seems to go through them like a good curry
ps thinking about it there is a badgers set in the vecinity although the casts are small and not in scraped latrenes. Just my take on things
The 'beetle poo' was found on a footpath which runs through a barley field, the badger sett is along a hedgerow about 50 odd metres away. Funny thing is in the evenings when I've been watching the badgers a little owl has been perched in an oak tree just behind, and to Reds post we get a lot of herring and black backed gulls flying across from the Orwell estuary to the suffolk water park - just to confuse things????
As for the latrines, they are all looking very loose at the moment, later they will contain grain and fruit pips/seeds.
Keep the thoughts coming - thanks.
Yeah, I'd go with that too. We have quite a few of these fellas in our local woodland, and they gob their pellets out by a telegraph pole outside my house, they look just like that after a heavy downpour.
Ive also seen alot of similar sign recently. Unsurprisingly, the nature of these droppings coinsides with a large increase dung beetles / and other beetles in general. I reckon its hungry Badgers making the most of this summer harvest, a perfect woodland food.
Ive seen alot of Owl pellets and in my experience they dont as a rule look like this. Insects do feature on the Owls menu but at this time of year mice, screws and other small furry critters are what ends up on the plate, especially with chicks to feed.
I know Badgers are supposed to use a pre-dug latrines but this is not always the case. Obviously, the contents, colour and texture of sign such as this will change in different seasons as local food availability changes.
Smaller but simular is the hedgehog dropping. Badgers and the humble hog devour many of the same food stuffs hence the simular poo.
Was there any other sign, hair or prints, evidence of digging and so on.
Chhrs, Moko
Ive seen alot of Owl pellets and in my experience they dont as a rule look like this. Insects do feature on the Owls menu but at this time of year mice, screws and other small furry critters are what ends up on the plate, especially with chicks to feed.
I know Badgers are supposed to use a pre-dug latrines but this is not always the case. Obviously, the contents, colour and texture of sign such as this will change in different seasons as local food availability changes.
Smaller but simular is the hedgehog dropping. Badgers and the humble hog devour many of the same food stuffs hence the simular poo.
Was there any other sign, hair or prints, evidence of digging and so on.
Chhrs, Moko
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