Animal Scat

[NSFishingHalifax]

Had a visit over the March break to the in-laws in the Ottawa River area and was able to do a bunch of ice fishing. Was lucky enough to have 12-18" in their bay. Anyways, long story short is I woke up to go fish one morning to find a decently sized piece of animal scat in the middle of my set of holes. Something obviously was out picking up the dead minnows, picking up my scent, etc. 

Anyways, I'm no hunter or animal expert.. so what kind of animal scat is this? They're in Renfrew County so there are bobcats, coyotes, wolves, black bears, foxes, etc. We've seen all of these on their property over the last few years. It was all grass from what I could see and was roughly 5-7" in length. Any insight would be great!

TIA

James

 

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by NSFishingHalifax

[grimsbylander]

Looking at the picture, I think this thread could easily turn political. 😀

[misfish]

What a crappy way to start a thread,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[dave524]

Shouldn't be grass in a carnivore's scat, so I'll guess the only omnivore on your list, a bear. But then I've seen my dog's eat grass on occasion.

[Terry]

I think it’s from one of those vegan hippies that live out that way 

[smitty55]

My guess would be muskrat, they eat mostly vegetation.

[NSFishingHalifax]

2 hours ago, dave524 said:

Shouldn't be grass in a carnivore's scat, so I'll guess the only omnivore on your list, a bear. But then I've seen my dog's eat grass on occasion.

Foxes are also omnivores? Most of the pictures I've found of black bear skat are piles or droppings, not a single log like this. Also, from what I've read, carnivores also eat grass to supplement diets when meaty prey is scarce (aka winter).

Really curious as to what was around.

[NSFishingHalifax]

2 hours ago, smitty55 said:

My guess would be muskrat, they eat mostly vegetation.

I wouldn't guess a muskrat's skat to be this large, no?

[Whitespinnerbait]

Otter ?? Or fox.....coyote 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Whitespinnerbait

[big guy]

Sorry man, i was up that way recently and knew i should have hit the head before going for that walk.

[smitty55]

5 hours ago, NSFishingHalifax said:

I wouldn't guess a muskrat's skat to be this large, no?

That's kind of what I figured but after looking it up they do show some longer stools

[Garfisher]

Probably a coyote, outside chance of it being a fox. Traditional herbivores usually have scat that are pellets/pellet shaped/look like they're made of pellets. Foxes and coyotes will eat fruits and plants at times during the year as mentioned before, and their scat is commonly shaped like the one in the picture.

[akaShag]

Coyote would be my guess.  And they like to drop their turds on trails where people will see them.............

[KraTToR]

Coydog