March 2026 Natural Mystery Answered

Everyone who submitted an answer to last month’s Natural Mystery identified this as the scat of either a canid or a felid. Congratulations to Allison Van Dyk, Collin Arnett, Kirsten Welge, and Robert Daun, for correctly sorting out the clues and identifying the species that left this turd.

This is a bobcat (Lynx rufus) scat. An unusual find in the south suburbs of the Twin Cities.

When identifying scat, Kirsten invites us to consider four factors: Structure, Form or Appearance; Size; Contents; and Context. The first three are about what the scat itself looks like. The last is where the scat is located.

Let’s begin with the structure, form or appearance. Allison describes this scat succinctly as “tubular with blunt ends, ball and socket sections.” Collin emphasizes that it is fairly straight. Robert notes “what appears to be an exterior mucous coating that has dried,” while Kirsten Kirsten adds that “this deposit has a smooth, almost saran-wrapped appearance” and “the interior appears felted.”

For size, Collin describes this scat as “almost eight inches long and just under an inch in diameter.” Kirsten measures it at 7 inches in length with a 1 inch maximum diameter.

Robert describes the contents as “quite a lot of hair, and bits of crushed bones.” Collin added that “it contains little-to-no plant matter.”

Finally, for context, Kirsten focused on the scat being located inside of a deer exclosure fence. Collin focused on what species would be most likely in the suburban Metro area. In addition to these two points, I’d also add that the placement of the scat on a trail is noteworthy.

From these four factors, we can begin to assess a list of candidate. We are looking for a medium-sized carnivore that leaves smooth, segmented scats in the middle of trails.

Robert and Colin rule out raccoon based on both size and content. Collin notes that raccoon often deposit scat in latrines. I agree, but would note that they also often leave individual scats. However, they rarely deposit scat on trails. They rule out house cat based on size. Robert rules out mustelids—such as a fisher—based on size and form. Finally, they rule out canid based on the form, noting that we would expect to see more twisting in a coyote scat and at least one tapered end. Kirsten also notes that fox scat would top out at ¾ in diameter and 6 in long.

This leaves us with bobcat—an uncommon visitor to the south Metro. As Kirsten writes, “The structure of felted fur encased in a smooth exterior with ball-and-socket jointing is classic presentation for bobcat.” And it indeed classic—a textbook example of a bobcat scat. If it were not such a good example, I might have doubted the identification myself. I saw several other scat that day that looked like bobcat scat, but I could still imagine might be really unusual looking coyote scat. Not this one. This was the dropping that convinced me that a bobcat has been visiting the zoo this spring.

Both Robert and Collin also noted that if they found this scat in the field they would likely try to squish it to see how dense it was. The felting of the fur in the digestive tract that Kirsten described creates a very dense scat that tends not to give very much under pressure compared with coyote scat. This is not universal across felids. Cougar scats often smear when crushed. But this clue can be help us distinguish bobcat from coyote.

Congratulations again to Allison, Collin, Kirsten and Robert. And thanks as always to everyone who submitted an answer. Sharing your observations and your process helps us all grow and develop as trackers and naturalists.