The Scoop on Poop

There are pluses and minuses to a walking safari.  The main disadvantage is that you don't see that many animals.  And, when you do spot one or more, you must stay a healthy distance away.  Therefore, your sightings are less frequent and are not up close and personal.

The main advantage of a walking safari is the information you learn from your guides about spotting animal signs and what they represent.  One of the best carriers of information is animal scat (i.e. poop, droppings) -- especially good at communicating how recently the animal has been in the vicinity.

I found this knowledge fascinating, and became somewhat of an expert on poop.  Here is what I learned:

Lion Scat

•  Lion versus Leopard Scat.  While a lion's scat will have bones and hair in it, a leopard's scat will not.  That is because a leopard basically skins its prey, and eats the meat off around the bones.  A lion just eats it all.  In the accompanying lion scat picture, I hope you can see the bones and teeth fragments.  In person, you could also see hair.

•  Elephant Scat.  Elephants are herbivores, and eat large quantities of grass.  But, unlike cows or buffalo, they don't have multiple stomachs.  Therefore, they only absorb about 40% of what they eat, and their scat contains a ton (literally) of grass.  It comes out looking like bales of shredded wheat. Then, two different species come and eat it:  both baboons and Francolin birds scatter the poop and enjoy the half-digested grasses.   Thus, if the elephant poop you see is still shaped as a bale and in a pile, it is quite recent.  The baboons haven't been by yet.

Pre-Baboon Elephant Scat

•  Giraffe versus Kudu Scat.  Giraffe and impala scat looks alike in color and size.  Both are pebble-like in appearance.  The only way you can tell them apart is how the scat lays on the ground.  Giraffe poop is scattered all over; kudu poop is in a neat pile.  Can you guess why?   That's right.  It's because of the much greater distance that giraffe poop must fall.

•  Hyena Scat.  The poop I found most interesting was the hyena's.  Their piles are made up of pure, solid white poop.  That is because they digest everything they eat except bone.  In what is another sign of "the grand scheme" of things, there is a kind of turtle that is innately calcium-deficit.  So, that turtle searches for and eats the hyena's scat as their calcium pill!

I hope you found this at least half as interesting as I did.  I couldn't decide what title to use on this blog post.  The runner-up was "I know shit."