 What just left its droppings on the trail? Was it an elk, deer, moose? I'm here to give you the scoop on poop. Another term for wildlife poop is scat. This scat comes in all shape and sizes, but is distinctive between animals. The consistency can also change depending on what the animal is eating. For example, deer pellets clump together during some seasons. Wildlife can have diarrhea if they eat an especially moist diet or have intestinal distress. Let's talk about how to distinguish scat that comes in the form of pellets. Moose is the biggest and is about as long as a Brazil nut but barrel-shaped. It often contains fibrous material because of their woody diet. The next size down is elk, which is the size of a pistachio. Deer is smaller than elk and close to peanut size with a point at one end. Slightly smaller pellets come from rabbits. They're about the size and round shape of a dry soybean. Squirrels have pellets like pine nuts. The smallest pellets come from mice and are the size of rice grains. These size comparisons are for mature animals so young animal scat would be smaller. So even if you can't see the wildlife, there's signs that they're all around. Keep your eye to the ground. From the University of Wyoming Extension, I'm Mae Smith, Exploring the Nature of Wyoming.