The two biologists from Michigan's eyes lit up as they described their favorite scat ever. They had found a grizzly pile with a complete eviscerated ground squirrel skeleton in it. It was apparently quite a sight and there was talk of shellacking it and using it for a large paperweight.
  I'm not sure what it takes to become fascinated with animal droppings but I've met quite a few people who were so I know I'm not alone. You people are out there. I know you are. I think it has to do with the love of wildlife and if you can't see the animal you can at least see he was here, how recent he passed by and what he was eating. As in: "The wolf was here last night, he was eating elk by the look of all the fur, and my, he must be a big one. "
   Our Michigan friends had been studying fox in the park in 1995 during the onset of the wolf restoration project. I had seen a great deal of scat earlier that day and I assumed it to be fox poop so asked them what fox droppings look like. One of them proceeded to go much further into detail than I had anticipated and described the various shapes and consistencies possible. He was obviously fascinated by the subject and had apparently bagged and studied a great deal of poop.
    When my partner Christine and I go hiking we typically stop to point out to each other the wolf or bear crap, assessing how old and what it is composed of. Sometimes if it is a really nice specimen I document it with a photo. My scat photography needs help though, last time some of it came out blurry so maybe I need to work on my close-up work. One doesn't want to get too close however.
   Most of my photos so far are of wolf feces. On future trips I hope to take more pictures representing contributions from all the major Yellowstone fauna. Although the subject is admittedly a bit course no one has to visit the page unless they want to and hopefully no one will unexpectedly open the page while eating. I've seen several tracking books that have nice scat sections complete with photos in living color so I don't think I'm too far from center on this. If you have a nice shot send it in. I'll post it. I don't think I'll put any of this on my wallpaper page though.

Tim Springer - 2004