Animal droppings have plenty of names... and tell us plenty about the animal.

Warning to the squeamish: This morning, I’ll delve into “scatology” for a treatise on animal droppings. Winter snow provides a perfect, clean white canvas for tracking wildlife and for finding wildlife “scat.”

Why be delicate when there’s an entire lexicon of obscure, yet well-accepted terminology for animal excrement? Some animal droppings have species-specific names! Really.

Obscure terms for wild animal droppings include deer “fewmets” and otter “spraints.” An archaic hunting term for the scat of a bear, wolf or wild boar is “Lesses.”

“Guano” is typically reserved for bat excrement and whitewash from seabird colonies. Seabird guano is mined commercially for production of the ammonium used in some fertilizers. Bat cave guano deposits are mined for extraction of powdered nitrogen compounds used in production of old fashioned TNT dynamite.

Scat contains valuable information about predator and prey diets. Typically, fur and bones comprises coyote scat which is deposited prominently on stonewalls or in the center of a trail to convey territorial dominance. Rounded deer droppings and mounds of elliptical porcupine dung heaped outside active winter den sites are entirely comprised of fibrous hemlock bark and coarse woody browse from twigs and buds.

The psuedo-science of “spatilomancy” is fortune-telling by reading animal droppings!That concept is not entirely far-fetched. The most factual and timely wildlife information is obtained from tracking. Scat and tracks are a definitive record of the relative abundance of species active in the winter woods!