Scat

Big city, no wildlife, the paved over urban jungle. Right?

Yeah, if you’ve perused this site you’ve seen pictures of deer and raccoons and opossums and rabbits and squirrels and skunks and a few dozen bird species and god knows how many lizards and…

But me? I’m just an old Boy Scout from Vermont. I know that there are critters out there. So earlier this week, in the back yard, when I saw a couple odd looking piles of scat, it piqued my interest. (For those who weren’t Boy Scouts, “scat” is a fancy, semi-polite term for “animal shit.” It often has “things” embedded in it which will tell you what the critter has been eating.

So these small piles of dark scat have berries and nuts as well as fur, so probably something omniverous-ish. Smaller than a bear (probably), and there really are bears around, although more likely to be seen near the bigger mountains in places like Pasadena and Glendale, bigger than a feral cat. Yes, a curiosity. Also curious how it’s found in the back yard, which is surrounded on all sides by at least a 5′ chain link fence. So either something that’s coming from tree to tree or a jumper.

This morning, I found this on the front yard, well away from the sidewalk, which is where the rude folks walking their dogs let them leave a pile for me to clean up.

That most certainly wasn’t there last night – and it’s right where I should be able to see it on the front porch security camera. So let’s see what motion there was last night other than cars driving by…

(Click on any image to enlarge it. If you save all five temporarily, you can flip between them quickly and it’s pretty clear who our visitor is.)

Rabbits are a known issue in both the front and the back yard, so my suspicion is that this dude spooked a rabbit into the bushes and then came looking for him. Unsuccessfully, as far as I can tell.

I hear these coyotes a couple times a week, but they usually don’t come all the way to the top of the hill, preferring to stay down in the canyons. Of course, this also explains all of the shipping crates left around the yard for Acme equipment.