animal sign comparisons

photos of and notes on scat and tracks

Please do not handle scat. Wolf scat, for example, can transmit tapeworm eggs to humans.

bison:

bear: grizzly:

cylindical, 2' plus (massed if vegetation main food source) We've seen bear scat that was totally dark green.

moose:

chips or massed when eating aquatic plants and thick grasses, pellets (a little more oblong than elk)when eating woody browse

elk:

chips like cattle when feeding in summer on lots of vegetation, pellets in winter when food is more dried grass

coyote: is like a dog's but often with more hair

frequently deposited where they stop to look for prey at an open area

beaver: you won't see this deposited on land very often

otter: short, round or flat with fish scales, bones or other aquatic food parts. Green and slimy when fresh.

(Sorry, these photos of animal scat are not printed here in a scale to show their size in relation to each other.)

______________________________________

Both the dog and cat family have four toes. Bear, otter, badger, wolverine have five toes.

full coyote or wolf tracks will almost always leave toenail imprints, a bobcat or mountain lion won't

wolf track in snow:

coyote has a walking stride of 6 to 8 inches and leaps of 10 feet, wolf has a walking stride of nearly 30 inches and leaps of 9 or more feet

a bobcat print will fit easily within an adult's palm, a mountain lion's larger foot will fill it or almost fill it

you won't find deer or elk tracks as much in/near the water habitat of moose, and moose tracks are much larger, up to 5 to 7 inches long

grizzly tracks have less space between toes than black bears, black bears toes arranged in more of an arc than griz, claw length (from tip of claw to front of toe) longer than toe lenght on griz

smallest toe of the five may fail to print

North Cascades National Park notes: Differentiating Black and Grizzly Bear Tracks

"Biologists use front tracks to distinguish bear species. You can do the same when you are out in the wilderness. Establish a line through the lowest point of the outside toe and the highest point of the palm pad. Notice that the black bear's inside (right) toe is mostly below the line, while the grizzly bear's is above the it. The rear foot on both species looks the same."

In the Yellowstone bear sighting form, shown below, notes include that a line drawn from under the big toe and across the top of the pad runs through the top 1/2 of the little toe on black bear tracks and through or below the bottom 1/2 of the little toes on grizzly bear tracks.

see also Rocky Mountain mammal size comparisons

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/yellowstone-resources-and-issues-handbook.htm

For actual incidents of injuries from animals, usually caused by approaching them too closely, go to: fatal, near fatal or close call incidents/accidents in camping, backpacking, climbing and mountaineering

Look for the BEARS, MOUNTAIN LION, BISON, ELK and MOOSE sections.

Park rules say do not approach wildlife, stay 100 yards from bears or wolves and 25 yards from other wildlife including nesting birds. If you have an accidental, surprise or inadvertant closer encounter with wildlife you must remove yourself to those distances.

To visualize 100 yards, picture the length of a football feild.

To visualize 25 yards, picture four car lengths, six kayak lengths or the width of an Olympic-sized pool like ours at the college.