It's great to have contacts. I finally sent the above photo to Charlotte over at the Adirondack Ecological Center to see if she knew what it was.
A quick recap: I found this brown ball of stuff at the site where a deer had been consumed by (probably) coyotes. My first thoughts were that it was part of the innards, but the fine texture reminded me more of fecal matter, albeit fecal matter from a domestic animal that eats processed food. As it turns out, I was both right and wrong with both guesses. Here's what Charlotte had to say:
"Your deer gut photo looks like the rumen...not the organ but what was in the rumen. Pretty typical for coyotes and what-have-you to not eat it. Pretty vile (or bile). We see that a lot around carcasses."
So, it wasn't an organ, but it was from the innards. It wasn't scat, but eventually it would've been once it was thoroughly processed.
And there you are!
Thanks for solving the mystery! I see that stuff from time to time, and now I will know what it is. I guess we've slipped over the edge into nature nuttery when we want to know all about innards and poop.
ReplyDeleteWell, all of us at the Nature Nuttery will be in good company, eh?
ReplyDeleteWait until you read my Almanack post next Wednesday (The Scoop on Poop)!
Cool! I love to learn about the weird stuff we find in the forest. Last week I was looking at peach colored slime mold like stuff that I kept finding on the trees. I finally realized it was probably paint ball goo that the yahoos shoot at each other in my red neck of the woods. Had me going for a while. I have great photos! :-)
ReplyDeleteI call myself a Nature Nerd so I guess I qualify for the Nature Nuttery as well. Good company for sure!
Check out the frogs I found last night!