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Here's another early springtime find in some woods of Central NY State (April 19th, snow mostly gone but only the earliest plants flowering or leafing).

A pretty large pile of what could be animal droppings? Looks like balled up hair. Right on the trail. Approx 12" / 30cm across.

I think this is much too large for owl pellets... and seemed pretty uniform in composition.

Is it droppings? If so, what predator / prey? If not, what is it?

enter image description here

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    Might be a pellet. Did you notice any bones?
    – phipsgabler
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 10:59
  • @no, did not, which was one of the reasons I thought a pellet was less likely, aside from the size.
    – StayOnTarget
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 11:27
  • Did you open one up?
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 14:04
  • @WeatherVane we poked around a bit, and it all seemed fairly homogenous.
    – StayOnTarget
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 14:13
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    Could be hair-balls from a big cat (cougar?) or droppings from a similar animal after eating something with lots of hair/fur?
    – bob1
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 20:26

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Yes, Most likely from a coyote. They eat everything but cant digest the hair. I've seen some mountain lion poop look like that also.

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  • This was certainly in a coyote friendly area. Mountain lions... not so much as far as I know.
    – StayOnTarget
    Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 2:15
  • agreed, looks like coyote scat to me as well. They pass hair after they eat a critter. And they also like to do so on well traveled paths and such to mark territory.
    – ShawnW.
    Commented Sep 10, 2020 at 18:04

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