Moose or deer?

[MadRiver]

Question oh knowledgeable ones:

I encountered this scat on Mt. Crescent last Saturday. Although the scat is small the hoof prints that were nearby looked large enough to be moose. Would you say this scat is moose or deer? I’m having a disagreement with someone over this.

Thanks
http://oz.plymouth.edu/~rjkipphut/n1450265390_139696_5266.jpg

 

[dug]

Looks like deer, but can't get a read on the scale. Grape-sized or raisin-sized? What did it taste like?

 

[MadRiver]

Grape size and tasted like chicken.

 

[BlackBuffalo]

Grape sized should be moose. But, I doubt I would have the talent to taste a difference.

 

[dentonfabrics]

Is that a rather small pile for a moose?

 

[Jay H]

Could be moose that frightened the cr*p out of a deer?

Jay

 

[Fitz]

Neither

Neither. Them are smart pills. Eat a handfull and get a whole lot smarter.

 

[peakn]

The pattern, color and size all look like deer.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

"Good thing we didn't step in it!"

Tim

 

[The Hikers]

I agree with the Deer poop ID

 

[Little Rickie]

Looks like deer poop to me and fresh too. The moose poop I've seen were lighter in color and spread out more than pilled.

How does something so big, manufacture and pop out such uniform and small pellets? You'd think something like a moose would drop baseballs size poop.

 

[The Hikers]

Or more akin to that dropped by cattle and horses

 

[Little Rickie]

I think moose eat much coarser food than cattle and horses. Cattle make pies and horses make large loose pellets, larger than moose.

 

[sardog1]

Okay, okay, it's time to get down and dirty.

Moose are mostly browsers -- they mostly consume woody plants, "usually" not grazing on grasses and their ilk. Their scat varies in character depending on the food source. The pellets from drier woody plants are usually 1 -- 1.5 inches in length. A soft pile from succulents will be about 2 -- 2.5 inches across. The soft pile doesn't resemble a horse dropping much, except maybe a horse that has intestinal issues or is on poor feed. EDIT: There can be a resemblance to cow droppings, but cows and moose are probably rarely together here in NH.

Deer are grazers and browsers. Their pellets are much smaller, usually 3/8 -- 1 inch, very rarely as big as 1 3/8 inches. They look very much like rabbit/hare pellets, except that the former are oval or oblong and the latter are round.

Here's a good series of moose dropping types (scroll down the page.) Here's a good comparison of droppings from bear, moose, deer, rabbits, etc. from The Nature Handbook by Ernest Herbert Williams.

The go-to source for identifying all scats is the Peterson series A Field Guide to Animal Tracks by Olaus Murie.

 

[Little Rickie]

Your obviously a man that knows his poop.

How do you explain the pellett shape?

The moose poop I saw was old, just like in the picture.

 

[sardog1]

Moose pellets can be oval or round(ish). From the "grape size" comment, I take the pellets in question to be moose. This is also suggested by comparing their size with what appears to be a snowshoe track at lower left in the photo.

 

[MadRiver]

The next time I will take a sample and send it off to a lab. Given the size of the hoof prints, it was either a moose or a very fat deer.

 

[Bob Kittredge]

Raisinettes = deer
Milk Duds = moose

 

[forestgnome]

Moose and deer droppings are very distinctive by size, and there is nothing to the size of the animal. That of a large deer does not look like that of a small moose at all, and the same goes for hoof prints.

Moose are grape-sized; deer are raisin-sized.

As Sardog1 points out, the droppings change in composition with season because their diets are different. All winter the diet is dry and so are the droppings. In spring, when leaves appear, the diet is less dry and so are the droppings. In spring/summer, it can be one large pile instead of the grapes.

happy trails

 

[rocket21]

Moose and deer droppings are very distinctive by size, and there is nothing to the size of the animal. That of a large deer does not look like that of a small moose at all, and the same goes for hoof prints.

Moose are grape-sized; deer are raisin-sized.

As Sardog1 points out, the droppings change in composition with season because their diets are different. All winter the diet is dry and so are the droppings. In spring, when leaves appear, the diet is less dry and so are the droppings. In spring/summer, it can be one large pile instead of the grapes.

forestgnome, when it comes to moose, you know your sh*t! Sorry, it had to be said