Berry Dung

Cool. Any luck with ID?

Have fun...grin.

Ok, forgot the website: http://www.bear-tracker.com/blackbearscat.html

Here's another website to look at and, yes, this person measures poo....grin. You'll notice there is a wide variation in appearance, depending upon what the bear was eating, so while nothing here quite looks like your photo it could still be a bear.

Interesting. I'd suggest a bear as well, if it is five inches long. Bears have the relatively short digestive systems of carnivores, which is really adapted to digesting meat. Anything with fiber in it, such as vegetation tends to pass through a bear's gut relatively quickly and somewhat unscathed. Berries, themselves, may tend to have laxative effects as well, which further speeds up the process leading to poor digestion.

Well that would answer the age old question about bears in woods! :)

haha That's a little large for raccoon; maybe coyote. Bear is the most likely, maybe a small one. It's such a strange shape for a pile!

Carol, when you start measuring poo I suspect there may be a few people who will consider you strange! :)

The relative size of this is a little hard to see; if not large then it could conceivably be raccoon, one that had eaten waaayyy too many berries! They look like they could be in the cranberry family, or native plum--a little hard to see the size, as I say. Raccoons would eat both. Depending on the size, it could also be wild unripe grapes, which might have aided in their being deposited relatively undigested.

Makes sense, Karen. Carol, here's an interesting site for future reference. http://www.northwoodsguides.com/animal_scat_notes.htm#Fisher

I've seen fox poo like this in England after our resident red fox had been eating the windfall plums, damsons & sloes along our lane - it looked like a mini cow pat full of seeds & undigested berries!