another mystery poop

[Franco]

I am waiting for someone to donate a camera .
After the original quartz miners and the Chinese there probably isn't any gold left.
However they still find some around Ballarat.

[Nuts]

You may be surprised. An old friend now does this full time, prospecting in Vic and WA. Iv'e joined him a few times.
The victorian fields, presenting as alluvial and shedding from reefs, deposits were easy to find. Even the chinese though, could only follow what they saw. Often they would also be in a race to find the main reef, missing some along the way if gold was still showing in the creek above, often not focused on or able to find those entering lower down. Also missing those not yet shedding into creeks. Even their overburden from the deposits found have a much missed gold. Lots of it still being found with detectors. He detects private property on a 50-50 basis with the landholder.

Anyhow.. I have a spare trail camera, let me know if you have that level of interest, i'll send it up.

[MickyB]

A couple of books that might be helpful to you Franco. Not just for this scat but for the other scats and tracks you are finding on your property. I don't own any of them so not sure how good they are but I might look into buying one or two for my own collection.

[Franco]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see how much is the need to know what it is.

[Moondog55]

Franco I have been finding similar scat in my backyard over the last 2 days, the ornamental plum trees in the street are ripening and we are getting a lot of rufous fruit bats flying in to feed
Do you think you may be under a flight path?

[oldpiscator]

Franco I have been finding similar scat in my backyard over the last 2 days, the ornamental plum trees in the street are ripening and we are getting a lot of rufous fruit bats flying in to feed
Do you think you may be under a flight path?

Yeah the *&%$#! have stripped my peach tree and left their calling cards all over the lawn.

[Franco]

Not sure why a bat would follow my trail up the hill and then across to the neighbour...
all my fruit and veggies are under net so nothing to eat for bats here anyway.
Someone suggested deer and it sorts of look like a deer poo when they have eaten sugar rich fresh grass (horses do that too...) but I can't see how that would happen almost every night for a year now.

[highercountry]

I reckon Moondog might be onto something.
Bats definitely do follow cleared tracks through the bush.
Years ago I joined in on a wildlife survey near Lake Tyers in E.Gippsland. One of the target genera were bats.
We set fine mesh net traps across the flight paths above the walking tracks.
Flowering eucalypts are their main food source.
Our fruit trees provide an extra delicacy for them.

[Franco]

I posted a photo of my property, from google Earth, in the previous page to give a better idea of what I was talking about. It does not make any sense to me that a bat would fly up (under the trees but along a "trail" ) on one side then take the path going across to the neighbour about 2/3ds up the property.
(as described in the post with that photo)

[TerraMer]

old sick cat is my guess. I house sit and often care for elderly and sick animals when their humans are away. These look like old or sick cat scat.

can you see scratchings around or near the mystery poop, does it try to bury it?

[Franco]

Why would an old sick cat walk up (or down) and then across my property pretty much every night for over a year ?
The poop is always the same colour , dark brown almost black. No hair/seeds /berries/lumps.

Anyway, no no scratching, in fact a recent one was on top of a stone. Never seen a cat pooping like that.

I happen to have a very fastidious cat. Mostly he does his business outside taking his time selecting the right spot ( when he does it following me he goes behind a tree but comes out to see if I am waiting then goes back to do it...)
He has a box inside and I have seen him several times carefully checking the box to make sure it is clean then just walk away. A few times i have seen him walking a meter or so away then going back for another look.
Sonny spends his nights inside and that is when the mystery poop appears.

[Neo]

A feral cat might have its home range. Ive seen plenty of cat poop on top of lawns or garden beds. Once i saw a dog poop sitting on a bush!

[Franco]

yes but we need an herbivorous cat to fit this thread.

[benoloughlin]

Hi Franco
As per MickyB's post above...
I recommend you get yourself a copy of Barbara Trigg's book "Tracks, scats and other traces".
kind regards,
Ben

[digbyg]

Bird or reptile would leave a white splash on top (generally of insoluble uric acid). That's not visible in pics, so not them. No amphibian big enough.
Therefore a mammal, probably with a dietary malfunction/choice along its route. The volume suggest something medium dog size. Try for some tracks using lime dust on the dam wall.

[bernieq]

Looks like Peacock.

[Supertramp]

I just looked at my copy of Barbara Trigg's book "Tracks, scats and other traces" & couldn't find anything that was even a liquid type scat.

I think you might have an animal that is possibly sick and that is why the scats look very strange.


Lay some flour down across the track (or very fine sand), make it as smooth as possible and check it each morning, this will let you know what is walking up the track at night.

[Franco]

There is a very old wallaby that slowly roams around but he does not confine himself to the various trails where I spot that scat.

[Franco]

There is a very old wallaby that slowly roams around but he does not confine himself to the various trails where I spot that scat.
For the third or fourth time I have now seen one of those scats on top of stones , looked very deliberate to me.
Somewhat like wombats do but of course nothing like a wombat scat.

[bernieq]

Look, I dont want to be definitive from just a photo or two but it looks identical to the peacock poo I see around the house and on the edge of the local state forest. The one near me escaped from a local property and has been roaming for 2 years.

[Franco]

I have eliminated the old wallaby (not that I though it was it) because I found him dead today (probably died a week or so ago) yet I have new poops around.
The only peacock poop photo that I could find is this one :


the poops I have here are flat, about 5 to 10mm thick.

[celeste boy]

Hello
Im new here but I have the same scats that Franco describes.
The difference is that the creature is destroying my garden.
If Franco is out there...did you eventually get an i d on the animal? I'm in Bowral NSW.
Cheers

[celeste boy]

For those who have been following Franco's 'droppings' problem, I have had the same type of droppings which no one seems to be able to identify. Here is my latest message to Franco:

Franco,
I borrowed a wildlife camera and ran it last night. The animal turned out to be a fox. It was active digging in the garden from 10pm til 5am and it was *&%$#! cold at the time. He was desperate.
I think he was after those white curly grubs, hibernating lizards or the fungi produced from euc mulch... or all three. If he ate that stuff, it would account for the nature of his droppings which are rare, but you know what they look like.
I could send you a photo but you probably know what a fox looks like!!! He was very active in digging and my wife was very disappointed to see the damage he was doing. He also wees on the native plants and that doesn't help them.
I'm guessing that this fox does not get much real protein like chickens, possums etc and maybe that stuff is what they live on in hard times.
Regards,
Graham

[Linda1]

I have noticed this scat around Lake Eildon and my son also sees it in State Forest around Ballarat. Did you ever get an identification?

[Franco]

I have resurrected the thread because now I am almost 100% sure that it was emu poo.
So I was wrong (no emus around here) but a few earlier on were spot on.
A few months ago we spent some time at Halls Gap. There are a lot of emu about and in fact 14 of them were resident in the camping ground we were staying . (they come and go as they please...) so I did notice that most of the time their poo looked exactly like the one we had on our property.
Turns out that not far from where we were there was at least one emu, escaped from a nearby farm.
So I thank you all and well done to those that had it right.