Poo in the Woods!

[Surrey Yeoman]

Guys & Gals,

I was stooging about in the woods this morning and found some interesting poo!

Now, I don't have a Poo fetish or anything like that, but I'd be interested to know what animal (I'm guessing it wasn't human) left the deposits. Both were pretty fresh - not steaming, but very moist.

I'm quite intrigued by the balck poo as it looks like it came from a fairly large critter. It was a fair quantity and was about an inch and a quarter (approx 30mm) in diameter. I'm afraid I drew the line at having a rummage through it to see what sort of material it contained.

The green poo is I guess, from some kind of herbivore? It was much smaller, just about half an inch in diameter (about 12mm). The little white things on the green poo are reflections from the camera flash, not grubs.

The deposits were within about 3 feet of each other.

Any suggestions?

BLACK POO

GREEN POO

I'm guessing that there shouldn't be any Bears in the wood of the Surrey/Hampsire borders! I'm wondering if the black poo is from a Badger, as there was a fairly large burrow not too far away and I found what I'm almost certain are Badger tracks in the sand of the entrance.

 

[bushcraftbob]

This thread stinks....

sorry guys just had to drop that one!

I have no idea, the first one looks like something that is not of this planet!

 

[spiritofold]

Looks like fox crap to me. You can see where they been eating blackberries.
The second pic the doings have hair in them that looks like it might be rabbit fur.
Foxes and badgers can lead quite symbiotic lives, would'nt surprise me if the foxes and badgers share their home...

Generally badgers are cleanish and will form a latrine away from the set, near the base of a tree and dump there. Their **** really stinks and if its a well used latrine it leaves a sticky mess.

 

[HawkesNest]

This thread stinks....

Wow, This forum has all the new technological tools. What option did you have to turn on to get the smell functionality? :Thinkingo

 

[jojo]

I'd say the black one is a fox's. Don't know for the green one.

 

[Buckshot]

Not convinced that the first is fox.
Fox scat has a corkscrew effect and is very tapered at one end. Normally has a lot of hair in as well which tends to hold it together.
The location is important too. Foxes usually mark higher than the surrounding area to help the scent travel in the wind. that looks like it's in a dip. Bagders will poo in a purposely dug hole, photo 1 looks like there's too much litter one the floor to be a freshly dug hole.
The photos show the scat well but not the location unfortunately.

If I had to guess without seeing more of the location I'd go for badger in the first photo and I'm not sure about the second, looks like the animal has a stomach upset anyway!
could be fox with the hair in it. Could also be something like Pheasant though - although that's normally brown ????

Mark

 

[Andy2112]

looks like whatever did them needs more fibre in the diet.

 

[Surrey Yeoman]

Not convinced that the first is fox.
Fox scat has a corkscrew effect and is very tapered at one end. Normally has a lot of hair in as well which tends to hold it together.
The location is important too. Foxes usually mark higher than the surrounding area to help the scent travel in the wind. that looks like it's in a dip. Bagders will poo in a purposely dug hole, photo 1 looks like there's too much litter one the floor to be a freshly dug hole.
The photos show the scat well but not the location unfortunately.

If I had to guess without seeing more of the location I'd go for badger in the first photo and I'm not sure about the second, looks like the animal has a stomach upset anyway!
could be fox with the hair in it. Could also be something like Pheasant though - although that's normally brown ????

Mark

Thanks Mark and everyone else who's replied. The scats were on the surface and no attempt had been made to bury them, although the ground immediately nearby had been disturbed as if something had been rooting around. I couldn't see any rabbit droppings, so I don't think it was rabbits disturbing the ground. They were on the south side slope of a hill about 30 yards up from the valley floor in a plantation of Scot's Pine. I tried to take a photo showing the area around the deposits, but it didn't work out. Neither of the scats were particularly smelly, albeit to my somewhat dull, human nose!

Looking on the internet, Google Images, I found a short video clip from a BBC programme where a couple of chaps were examining some fox scat and it does look similar, although not quite as big. There's definately no taper on it, so whatever left it must have had a backside that snapped shut!

I plan to return to the woods and spend a few nights out in them, so maybe I'll be able to find out for sure what's left them.

Cheers

 

[spiritofold]

Put some dogfood out near where your camping and keep a watch

 

[Sniper]

Small dog possibly for the first, ferral maybe, although again they tend to have a distinct taper. Second thought on similar lines is a wildcat, Iv'e certainly seen similar in some FC areas around this end of the country.
The green I wondered about perhaps muntjac thats been munching pine needles or on Senepods?

 

[ZDP-189]

Sniff for the smell of pepper and inspect for small silver bells.

 

[Rhoda]

The first one is badger, I am 99.9% sure (need to have a sniff to get the other 0.1%)the second could be fox, again I'd need to smell it. Your sense of smell is the most important thing when it comes to scat id. Fox and badger smell very different - badger is very earthy and stinky and fox more musky. If I were you I would go back and see if they smell different to each other. There I go again encouraging folk to sniff poo in the woods

 

[Pablo]

Agree with Rhoda on the top one. Definately badger... on the blackberries.

I've actually seen badger poo like the second as well and could well be a different animal feeding on something else (might even be a lucky carcass find which has been there a few days and upset the stomach a bit). Likelihood it will be a fox.

Actually digging through it will give you very good indications of what produced it and of course what it was feeding on. But be sure to wear rubber gloves.

Cheers,

Pablo.

 

[firecrest]

Could the green poo be a hedgehog? I scared the s*** out of one once, by picking it up. literally, and it looked like that



Maybe it ate the left overs of a madras.

 

[spiritofold]

If there are badgers around, find their latrine and you will see the difference, or that the crap is the same, with the berry seeds in it etc. This time of year some animals make use of whats in the hedgerow instead of hunting. The foxes round here seem to love eating rowan berries.

 

[badgeringtim]

To contribute to the poo smelling theme, several people have suggested that badger smells really bad here, i couldnt disagree more. It does have a distinctive smell but nothing like as bad as any of the canids. It smells musky - presumable from their musk gland? and actually the smell does have some simlilarities with otter - not the main scent but the underlying one.
As mentioned above it depends hugely on what they have been eating, a badger will take carion and rabbits and then can be a bit ripe but never as bad as a fox. Also i would say that when badgers are eating bramble they seem to use latrines less (just personal observation) but the top one is definately badger - even looks like an old one behind it where they have eaten corn.maize perhapse? the second i would hazard a geusse at badger returning to worm diet but without a sniff...woundt say for sure. There are hairs there but ive never sen fox so vegetative looking.

 

[snoop Ex member]

are there any lakes or rivers nearby ?

 

[Dana Hawkeye]

Has anyone thought about doing a Bristol Stool Chart, but for British Wildlife?

 

[rik_uk3]

Has anyone thought about doing a Bristol Stool Chart, but for British Wildlife?

For members not in Nursing



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale

just can't see it myself

 

[Surrey Yeoman]

are there any lakes or rivers nearby ?

Yes, there is a small river nearby.

I've been back a couple more times, but alas haven't spotted the "culprit."

I have however found a scraping, about a foot long and 5 or 6 inches deep which contained several of the black deposits.

As for the smell, I found it quite earthy and not particularly strong or unpleasant. Breaking it up to have a look at the contents - rubber gloves worn - it was full of blackberry pips. No apparent bone fragments, but it was a bit gritty.

I'm going with Badger for the black poo, and hope to be able to confirm their presence in the woods when it's a bit warmer and the evenings are longer.

The green poo was too big to be a Hedgehog's; having been blessed with a good few of our prickly friends in my garden, I'm sure it's not from a Hedgehog's botty!