How to Identify Deer Poop

Hunters usually enter the woods in the fall to track and hunt deer. The deer are sometimes quite elusive, and one way of locating them is by looking for their droppings, or "poop." Most hunters have their own theories about deer droppings, but investigating the feces may give the tracker an idea of the size, movement and sometimes the sex of the deer population.

Instructions

1. Look for small, bullet-shaped pellets in piles or clumps. They are usually in piles of about 30 pellets, which are flat on one end and pointed on the other. The piles or clumps measure about 5 inches in diameter, depending on the size of the deer. They're very similar to the droppings of the cottontail rabbit, except that the rabbit leaves smaller piles, and it's never in clumps as deer feces sometimes are.

2. Determine how long the droppings have been in the area. Fresh feces are moist and shiny, and indicate that deer have been in the area within the last 12 hours. If the deer dropped it within the last 15 minutes, it'll still be warm. When it's fresh, the color is a dark brown, but as it ages, it lightens in color.

3. Study the consistency of the feces. Hard pellets indicate a diet of twigs, dry leaves and grass, or grain. Soft clumps are evident when green grass and leaves or farming crops are available to the deer.

4. Measure the size of the piles and the size of the pellets. Pellets that are less than ½-inch are usually from a doe or fawn. A buck may leave a larger clump, with pellets that are ¾-inch or larger and cylindrically shaped. Larger piles or clumps usually mean larger deer.

Tips & Warnings

• You may find the larger clumps of buck droppings in areas where they bed down, on rub routes or around scrape areas.