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Friday, June 13, 2025

Left behind

  

I've realized I don't share scat photos very often, but here's an interesting one  an example of Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) scat.

2 comments:

Vishnu said...

Hi Jackie, Could you say a little more? What makes this sample interesting? I could ID as 'scat', and probably mammalian, but that's about it.

Jackie Sones said...

Hi, Vishnu!

In this case, I was mostly thinking that many people likely haven't encountered seal scat before, so it might be a new example for some folks.

When we've observed seal scat, we've noticed a fairly broad range between a fluid/liquid form and this more solid form.

In most cases, we've known that seals have been in the area where we find the scat, so the identification has involved circumstance.

River Otter would be another possibility in these intertidal areas, but River Otter scat is much narrower and often has lots of fish scales or crab parts.

Jackie