In Arizona, black bears are less common north of the Colorado River. Black bears have an omnivorous diet which can vary depending on season and location. The black bear typically lives in woodland habitats which, in Arizona, includes pinyon juniper, oak, chaparral and coniferous forest. This pile of black bear scat was photographed on Campbell Mesa in the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. You’ll be able to gain insight into the bear’s diet by looking at its scat. A bear has an unspecialized digestive system, because they’re carnivores, making them unable to efficiently break down some plant matter.
In Whistler, the answer is not so obvious. Outside the Pique office on Monday morning was a large bear pie, just a metre from the front door. To me, it looks like the bears are defecating anywhere but the woods. Are they marking territory, I wonder, or is this maybe the bears’ form of non-violent protest against human encroachment into their territory.
A bear emerges from an outhouse in the woods in a humorous photo illustration of a bear pooping in the woods. Wild animals, insects, and pests problem at people house home. Note the berries and grass mixed with fish. Pile of bear poop on the emerson college average gpa ground, in the bear berry season. Marking by the excrement of the feeding territory by the Brown Bear . While hibernating, bears don’t eat or drink (and therefore, don’t pee or poop), and their heart beats drop from 90 to 8 beats per minute.
Bears leave behind markers other than scat. All bears have five rounded toes and a wide heel pad that produces an oval-shaped print. Their tracks are larger than most other animals and easy to spot in soft mud or a dusty dry trail. On trees, you may also see bite marks, fur from rubbing and claw marks from bears climbing to get nuts, fruits or other edibles. As is typical for feline scat, bobcat scat is cylindrical like a bear’s but smaller, more circular, and divided. When you tread on it, it won’t compress because it is incredibly dense.
Let’s say you’ve found ten piles of scat scattered over a 100-square-yard area on a secluded bench on a mountain. The scat appears to have all been made in the last two weeks, and there are still acorns scattered on the ground . I’d spend as much time as possible here with the wind in my favor. I might set up a treestand if the sign was very concentrated, but I’d probably just hunt off the ground hoping to stalk the bear if it was out of range. I would hunt mornings and evenings, not much different than the way you’d typically hunt deer.
The smell of bear scat varies depending on a bear’s diet. For example, the scat of a bear that consumes a lot of berries has a fruity scent that is not entirely unpleasant. However, if the bear has been eating a lot of meat, its poop will smell much fouler.
It is very dense and won’t compress when you step on it. The scat is 3 to 5 inches long and 0.5 to 1-inch in diameter. It contains fur and bones along with fruit, berries and grass. You also may see a scrape from the bobcat trying to cover up its scat. The carcasses of moose, mountain goats, elk, sheep, and other animals can be found in grizzly scat, along with plants, roots, berries, and tubers. Fish fragments can also be found in the scat of coastal brown bears.
Raccoons are omnivores, so their scat is filled with seeds, insects, nuts, and fur. DO NOT TOUCH raccoon scat as it may contain an infectious roundworm. One of the easiest ways to distinguish your bear scat is by simply knowing what part of the country you are in. There are only a few regions that contain both black and grizzly. You might come across some droppings on the trail and wonder “what kind of animal is this from?”.
