Walking on the wild side can lead to steppin’ in it. The National Park Service just released a guide to wildlife poop. Hang on, this is important. By keeping your eyes open for scat in the wild, not only can you save your shoes, you might actually save your life. Like, do you really know what bear poop looks like? If you see it, chances are, there might be a bear nearby.
Know your “stuff”? This guide to wildlife poop will test your knowledge
How well do you know your wildlife poop? Here’s a quiz. It’s a series of poo photos. Do you know cat scat from porcupine poo? Well, sorry, neither of those are included in this quiz, but there’s plenty of other “stuff” here. You’ll find the answers at the bottom of the story!
Poop pop quiz answers
As lifted from the National Park Service post.
Image 1: This scat was left by a black bear and was only a few days old in the picture. Trust us. Their diets consist of nuts, berries, roots, insects, and small mammals. Black bears are shy, reclusive and are rarely seen by visitors at Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Image 2: Moose droppings, not the candy, found during the winter at Kenai Fjords National Park.
Image 3: Life, umm, finds a way. Look closely, ooh, too close, to see the small green shoots emerging from the partially digested berries and leaves in bear scat at Denali National Park.
Image 4: Scat of a ringtail cat that ate some prickly pears at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
Image 5: A bison always lets the chips fall where they may at Grand Teton National Park.
Image 6: For fox sake. A little privacy here? A red fox in a squatting pose at Denali National Park.
We thought of adding a “how’d you doo” scoring section, but we were too pooped out by the time we got here. But if you got them all correct, you’re Number One with Number Two. Be sure to pass along this guide to wildlife poop to all your friends.
All quiz photos, National Park Service
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We attended a poop class at a museum in Anchorage with actual samples (in glass containers). We found the information very useful when we were hiking. Fresh bear scat? Get out of there!
Thanks for your always useful and interesting newsletter!
💩💩💩💩 !
Only a 4💩 rating, Bill?😉 Have a good evening/night. 😀 –Diane
What a hoot!
I did about as well as a cat trying to cover poop on a marble floor.
Thank you, Russ and Tina! Great article! DW is “into” this sort of thing. Guess is a bit of sibling rivalry with her older brother who is a hunter. Cannot wait to share this with her. Have a great day and safe travels!