Wildlife Spotting

I found this strange dead plant on the ground. It looked a little like the head of a broom, and it had many, many 'strands' of brittle, brown dead plant matter. When I touched it, there were many ridges and it felt very dry and rough. Each 'strand' was about 0.5-0.7 cm thick, 30 cm long, and the entire bunch was about 10-25 cm in diameter. In one of the pictures, you can see my hand right on top of it, and my hand is exactly 16 cm long.