Coyote scat, Bell

OK, everybody poops, and as every naturalist soon learns, that necessity can often provide an important clue about an unseen animal's identity and behavior. Scatology—the study of those droppings, or, as they're universally known to field biologists, "scats"—can tell you, at a glance, who left behind the deposit and what the depositor was eating. Every field guide dedicated to the art and science of animal tracking has a section devoted to poop, and if conditions weren't amenable to a critter's leaving behind footprints in the mud or snow, the other thing it left behind might give the tracker all the information needed to pull together a story. These are coyote scats: the shape and size are giveaways, and the preponderance of hair helps to distinguish the droppings from those that might be left by domestic dogs. The fact that there's a pile of scats probably indicates that this is marking the edge of a territory, either of an individual or a pack. Deer and pet owners beware.