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ID Mystery Scat?

7 years ago

My dog and I are puzzled by this big pile of scat we found by the pool this morning and wonder if anyone can help ID it. It is too big a pile and the pieces too large to have come from a tree rat or bunny or other typical yard critters, doesn't look like coyote or raccoon scat (we do have those in the yard once in a while). It was full of what looks like those little nuts found on some palm trees, with some poo material binding it together. Googled it and some links show that it resembles deer scat, but we don't have deer here. I wondered if one of the hawks or crows might have dumped it, but it's too large plus all in a nice pile like something squatted to deposit it. I'm in Los Angeles in the SW part of the San Fernando Valley, up a hill with a nice amount of greenbelt surrounding us but we are in a suburban neighborhood with houses all around, no direct link to the area's wildlife corridors so a bobcat or such seems unlikely, have never seen one of those around here. The pool area is fenced so whatever it was would have had to hop over the fence. Any ideas? I'll try to post photos. Thanks!

http://s1125.photobucket.com/user/SBMW/media/Image%201_zpswurr5tr3.jpg.html

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l596/SBMW/Image%202_zpsweaezola.jpg

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l596/SBMW/Image_zpsd7mhv6og.jpg

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Comments (5)

User
7 years ago
Coyotes or fox will eat berries and poop out undigested seeds. So will bears.

Might also be deer.

Nrither vougar or bobcat eats seeds.
Sharon McKenzie
7 years ago
It's not from a carnivore, that much is certain, and actually does look like deer scat. You should have mule deer where you're located. A jack rabbit would the other contender.
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ID that scat - pics included :)
Q
Comments (2)
Thanks, that makes sense. The grass is always matted down right near where I found the scat. It's definitely bedding for some sort of animal, and even thought its smack dab out in the open in my back yard, I've seen deer bedding a few feet away in the winter nights. A neighbor claims to have spotted a cougar behind their house. I normally wouldn't pay that any attention living in MD, but when the called the dept of natural resources, they were told that others had spotted what they thought was a "cougar" in the same area. Someone claims that they found cougar tracks, but I'm still highly doubtful. Just thought I'd check that rather large scat out with people who knew better than me. Thanks again.
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Comments (1)
That's definitely bear scat. Black bear since there aren't brown bears in ontario.
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Comments (9)
It looks like deer scat to me. I've got a bunch of it in my backyard this winter. Deer are not particular about where they dump their scat. Whenever and wherever the mood hits, they squat their hind legs and put an upward bow in their spine, and let fly. Their behavor on this bodily function is similar to cows. We watched one fertilize our back lawn just two evenings ago.
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ID Mystery Scat?
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Comments (5)
Yes indeed, my neighborhood often has "lost little pet" signs on the phone poles and I always assume a bigger critter got them (one friend watched an owl fly away with her small dog!). I always supervise my dog when out at night, and usually she only gets to go into the pool enclosure, not the whole big yard. That's partly to keep her out of a tangle with a bigger critter and partly to keep her for rousting too many bunnies, twice she's gotten the better of a bunny and I _really_ hate having to deal with that. I guess the scat was a big coon, maybe a coyote although it didn't resemble coyote poo very much. We must have a new critter around, last night something stole a large bone that the dog had left in the ivy near the house.
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lindac92
7 years ago
You SURE you don't have deer?
Sharon McKenzie
7 years ago
Every source I've checked says that there ARE plentiful deer in the San Fernando Valley. You might not have seen an actual deer, YET, but they are there! San Fernando Valley Wildlife
randy41_1
7 years ago
goat

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