scatologist ?

guess

guess

New member
I noticed that a few of you gave me a hard time about my interest in scat. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif it got me to wandering how many hunters put much thought into it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
As most of you know I hunt many species not just predators and I'm constantly looking for sign from each species while hunting the other .You know looking for predator sign while hog hunting ,deer sign while predator hunting for the up coming seasons.
You can tell a lot about an animal by it's scat. What he likes to eat ,where he's eating and in some cases his boundaries.
I rarely pass a pile without stopping and looking or poking a stick in it to see what made it , where it's been and it's preferred eating habits.
how many of you do the same and why?
 
I do, but that was how I was taught to hunt. My father always taught me to look at the sign that animals leave, it is the only way to "know" the animal better. Scat gives you a lot of information, just as you said. Tracks, scent post, and bedding areas are also a great key to finding animals habits. I found out early in my predator hunting days that tracking played a big part of my success. Finding coyote scat in piles in a small group at a path crossing or a fence crossing gives you one view of the animal. You can age the scat from new to old and it gives you a frequency of when that coyote makes his or her way through that area. Piles of scat that are older with new on top of it lets you know that two coyotes are using this area and it would be a great place to use coyote vocalization. The different things in scat can amaze you... I have found a lot of different things in coyote scat down to a part of what looked like a dish rag! No matter what I am hunting, I always look for scat piles. Good post Glenn. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

poop.jpg

He was a little "backed up"... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Coyote scat that I found this spring turkey hunting. Lots of small rodent hair and bones. There was a line of scat starting in a corner of the field and running the length of the field edge...
 
I'm also a sucker for scat piles, and checking them out. We have this one road in Idaho that runs west to east about 3 or 4 miles long. Any way coyotes will take a dump in the road tracks, some on the left side and some on the right side. Then you get on one side or the other and make a set up and watch what happens when the coyote comes to the road. They will not cross the line into the other coyotes territory. They will bark at you and whine but would not cross. We played with them for 45 minutes ,it was fun to watch and learn about boundary's and there scat. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif GENE'O
 
Yep, ditto to that's the way I learned to hunt, checking anything I can that tells me more about critters and scat is one of the more obvious. Had an uncle who was a government trapper and he could gather some scat and make a coyote scent marker in a set that caught coyotes for me.

Bear scat is fascinating. They eat anything, hard to believe what you find that has passed through a dump bear.

One of the more curious scat facts I discovered but can't explain is that sometimes bear scat just disappears. I suspect that something ate it. I.e. driving down a logging road in the Monashees of BC. bear piles dotted the road every hundred yards or so for one three mile stretch. Most was black and from hours to a week old, in spring. A few weres till green, minutes old. Three days lated driving down the same road, not a single pile of bear scat. What happened to it?

I've driven those roads many springs and only saw this happen twice. Normally the scat stays till it weathers away. Maybe some guide or local hunter got rid of all the scat so other hunters would think there were no bears in the area. Any biologists have any idea?

Cougar scrapes and scat reveal a lot and we use such info more than on most animals, other than fresh deer droppings when I'm hunting them.
 
Glenn, here's a scat question for you and others. A big, black coyote has been described as being seen at night on two different occasions. I've never seen him and I'm curious just how big and how black he is. Mind you this is an area with heavy oak and cedar with heavy undergrowth and waist high Blue Stem grass. Not what I'd think to be prime calling territory because of lack of visibility except for the road. I'm not an accomplished caller by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, I'm just trying to teach myself how to howl. I only practice when I'm by myself, for obvious reasons. At this point I fear it's truly a sound only a mother could love.

Anyway there's a half mile stretch of road that goes between our shop and the lodge. This is the area he was seen in. I keep the road and ditches bladed and often, a couple of times a week, see tracks of a single coyote crossing the road. Seldom do I see scat on the road. But here's the question. Sometimes late evening before I leave I will camo up and walk down the road with my camera and calls and take a stand to practice my howls and hurt pup sounds. So far I've never seen a coyote who's responded even though I'd love to see just how big and black this dude is. Hopefully by late fall I'll be good enough to invite him into AR range. If he's what they say, I'll have me a nice mounted black coyote soon.

As I said, although I seldom see scat on that stretch, almost without fail the next morning after I've called there will be a pile of scat and fresh coyote tracks within just a few yards of where I was set up. It's happened too often to be just coincidental, I think. What's this guy trying to tell me? Is this a normal marking behavior or is he taunting me. I'm beginning to take it personally. Sorta like here's what I think you sound like, fool. It's turned into an interesting game to be a part of and watch.

LD
 
Okanagan, Vultures will eat scat as do coyotes.I'm sure some bears will eat it.
Hogs will flip dry cow patties looking for grubs and other insects.
 
luckydawg,
it's definitely not coincidental ,some one was in his spot and he marked it! Take a leak in a spot and see how fast he marks it!

I would say you have probably called far more coyotes than you have seen.I would practice in an area I do not plan to hunt!
when you do hunt there use different sounds than you have been practicing.
just my .02
 
Quote:

when you do hunt there use different sounds than you have been practicing.



If you heard me practicing you'd realize just how funny that is. I'm not sure that I've ever made the same sound twice in a row. Kidding of course, sorta. Seriously though I do understand what you are saying.

Which brings to mind another question. If a coyote will come along and mark over a human "mark" why then are we so concerned about a coyote winding us? Seems like the answer to being winded would be to just take a leak on the decoy, have a seat, and take the safety off. Seriously again, if they will mark over ours like domestic dogs will do, I'm not questioning the validity of what you are saying, then it seems to reason that they'd have to smell us while they're marking on over it. How can they smell us and fear it one time and smell us and where we pee and be territorial another? If I'm making myself clear I'm not trying to be a smartarse. I can't help it but inquiring minds want to learn.

LD
 
they are spooked by fresh human scent not so much by dissipated scent.
Some will still spook but most wont.
I have had coyote tracks in mine when leaving a deer stand on many occasion.
one other difference is that they are not on red alert like they are when you are calling that alone can make all the difference in the world.
 
I was into poop at an early age. My family was very poor. No modeling clay or Play-doh in our house. How poor were we? We were so poor our family dog was a possum!

Here's a picture of gramps with Rover.

Redneck_Man_Possum2.jpg
 
Sorry Weasel but I am having a hard time figuring out which is the ugliest.Gramps or Rover????????

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Quote:
I was into poop at an early age. My family was very poor. No modeling clay or Play-doh in our house. How poor were we? We were so poor our family dog was a possum!

Here's a picture of gramps with Rover.

Redneck_Man_Possum2.jpg




/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Weasel, you are NOT right! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I was deer hunting with my son a few years ago and we were walking an old logging road on a ridge line back home on our farm. At the end of the road (in a corner of a field) there was a bunch of piles of coyote scat. I told Ricky to "Watch this...I gonna make this coyote mad!" and I took a pee right on the freshest pile I could find. I turned to get my rifle from the tree I leaned it against and when I turned back around there was Ricky taking a pee on the same pile! He says: "Now he will be really MAD!" and we laughed our butts off about it and went on our way. We didn't hunt that area the next day, but the last day we were there I decided to give that area one more chance. When we came to the corner and we looked for the scat all we found was a freshly dug up area with a brand new pile of coyote crap right in the middle of it! Ricky looked up at me in disbelief, "Dad, we DID make him mad!" I don't think a coyote knows it was a human who marked his scat, all he knew was that he was something that he wanted to show dominance over.
 
I've been told that urine is basicaly urine!! That it smells the same from whatever critter expelled it! Urine is basically ammonia, and is even sterile until it comes in contact with, anything! Maybe the odor is not species discriminating????
Mark
 
On two different occassions I have killed coyotes that were tracking me. Both from Deer stands and I had been in the stand for about thirty minutes. Once I was squirrel hunting and killed a coyote with the shotgun about 10 steps from me as he was following me. I was about 13 years old and was scared to death as I saw him coming down the trail I was standing in.

Glen, if you want to have some fun, pee in a buck Rake. He will sling dirt in a 10 foot circle when he gets to it.
 
Quote:
I've been told that urine is basicaly urine!! That it smells the same from whatever critter expelled it! Urine is basically ammonia, and is even sterile until it comes in contact with, anything! Maybe the odor is not species discriminating????
Mark



It seems like they read a lot from a sniff of urine, not only species but appear to read sex, age, general health, estrus condition, and that's not just coyotes but deer as well. Scent appears to be a resume and business card, as coyotes use it for marking. I think those yotes that marked a man's urine knew exactly what they were doing and that a human made the previous scent. Otherwise what's the point of misting, using doe in heat scents, etc., if all urine smells the same, and those do influence critters at times. I suspect Rich Higgins might have more knowledge on this.

As to why they come mark a scent but are wary of a call, they can tell from a scent sometimes whether a person is there or has left a scent and is gone. Plus, as Guess said, from the sound itself they know something alive is there and tend to check it out cautiously.

If you get skiff of tracking snow or a good tracking surface, go back 24 hours after you've called a spot and see what came around after you left. Verrrrry interesting sometimes. Like the cougar that had followed me down the trail to my vehicle after I'd called for over an hour. How soon after did he follow? I don't know, but his tracks were over mine the next morning. Coyotes, moose, deer and sometimes wolves seem to check out a call stand quite a while later.

Last Fall I stopped at a National Park boundary to change clothes and unlock a rifle, and took a leak by the side of the road. The next day, changing clothes at the same spot, I noticed wolf tracks that hadn't been there the day before, travelling down the road in snow. I followed a few steps and doggone, one of them had peed on the same spot I did. That always makes me look around real fast for some reason, in hopes of seeing the critter I guess, but the tracks were many hours old.
 
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RagnCagn,
I used to hunt a bow stand across a creek.I would always stop and take leak before I crossed to my stand,always near a bush.It only took a week before I saw two huge bucks working it just out of bow range!the last time I hunted there it was still being used as a scrape.

It cracks me up every time I hear someone tell how they ruined someone's hunting spot by peeing near their stand!
They may have just helped him kill his best buck ever!
 
Glenn, I check for scat as I head and head out of a stand. I poke a stick at it, to see what is being ate up.
Weasel-that was WAY FUNNY!

In Christ,

Song Dog
 
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