Tag: scat

Polar bears may seem a long way from civilization, but they’re vulnerable to dangerous chemicals that end up in the environment. These toxins get into the water and work their...

Despite their reputation for digging into trashcans and getting into altercations with humans, coyotes in suburban New York are actually eating more natural food sources like white-tailed deer and rodents....

Coyotes in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan consume more meat than those in the Upper Peninsula, researchers found. That’s because coyotes (Canis latrans) in the Upper Peninsula are surrounded by...

The Antarctic Peninsula can be a brutal place, but penguins and seals have created biodiversity hotspots, researchers found, thanks to their nitrogen-rich scat. Biologists found ammonia from their feces is...

Detection dogs are becoming more prevalent as a technique for wildlife biologists. Their noses sniff out scat that can provide clues to wildlife presence and movement. But they’re not always so accurate. Sometimes, between 4 to 45 percent of the time, the...

In Alaska, small mammals such as mice and voles eat and disperse seeds that they get from bear scat, according to new research. Previous research on black bears (Ursus americanus)...

As mountaintop dwellers, American pikas (Ochotona princeps) are particularly susceptible to climate change, but recent research suggests a population in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains were driven to extirpation from the...

Biologist Justin Brown sees coyotes almost every night he tracks them, which may seem unusual since the habitat he studies is the city of Los Angeles. Since May 2015, he’s...

Only 2 percent of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest lies under government protection, but some species of spotted cats appear to prefer those more protected areas, recent research suggests, and they co-exist...

Endemic to California’s San Joaquin Valley, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila) has been fighting extinction for the last half-century. With a little assistance from a team of scat-sniffing canines,...