What does bear poop look like?
And before you get into this article, make sure you’re not eating anything.
Bear poop is a great source of information about the health and diet of a bear.
A casual observer would be able to tell what a bear has been eating by looking at their scat.
This goes for all animals’ scat, actually.
It’s just that bears don’t mind you checking out their business as much as other animals do!
What Can Bear Poop Indicate?
Bear poop can also tell you other things about the bear that produced it.
A sudden change in diet can give clues to their mating patterns or how they spend their time.
Different types of poop (liquid, runny) will clue researchers into what’s going on with a bear if they take a fecal sample.
The color, shape, and texture of bear poop are able to determine species, age, sex, and more.
Healthy bears tend to have dry, well-formed feces that are dark brown in color.
It usually looks like a bunch of little pellets or folded-up pieces of paper – not all soft and gooey!
Scat produced by older animals tends to be darker than scat produced by younger bears.
The color of bear poop will depend on what the bear has been eating, and it can also tell you whether they’re healthy or not.
Bears that are sick or malnourished often produce diarrhea, making their scat soft.
This is because there isn’t enough water in their system to make normal feces.
A bear could have something in its digestive system slowing them down enough to make the scat malformed, too.
Researchers can determine what a bear has been eating by looking at the contents of its scat.
If the bear eats grass, there will likely be small bits in its scat that are green or brown.
You might also find grasshopper legs and other bugs if there is a bear with an appetite for protein!
If the bear has been eating berries, its scat might be purple.
When they go after meat like deer or rabbits or salmon, you might see little bits of fur or feathers in their poop.
Different types of poop can indicate whether or not a bear is pregnant or has an illness that might harm them or others if they were out and about.
Researchers also use this as a way to determine where the bear is at any given time.
Since no one likes to think about it, scat can tell you how often bears go to the bathroom and what their bathroom schedule is like!
What Does Age Have to do With Bear Poop?
Bear poop isn’t only used to study their dietary habits, though.
You can also tell a bear’s age from their scat – as they get older, their scat gets smaller and more crumbly.
Cubs produce large droppings that tend to have a lot of liquid in them.
And so, what does bear poop look like?
Well, it’s just different-colored poop with undigested fruits, come to think of it.
The most interesting part about it is that it apparently gives you a lot of information about the bear that excreted it.
The wild truly is wild.
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