Found Poop In Garden. Need Help Identifying Animal. Pictures Added.

[Sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I went to the garden today and I found a gross surprise. Some animal decided to poop right next to my cucumber plants.

I was wondering if anybody could help me determine what kind of animal was in my garden.

Here are the pictures:

I also have had this odd hole in my garden. It is about the size of a tennis ball in diameter, maybe a little smaller. I'm not sure how deep it goes. It has been there for a month or so.

I also had something stealing my strawberries a couple weeks ago too. They'd turn red and the animal would steal them before I had the chance to pick them.

I'm not sure if the strawberry theif, the hole and the poop is all related to the same animal or not.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's sure suspicious but I'm not sure any of that is related. That poop reminds me of possum poop. You might do a search online to see if you can find examples and see what you think.

A possum would probably not dig that hole, but if it is abandoned, it could move in. That does seem pretty small for a possum to squeeze its way in, but they will sometimes surprise you. If it is as big as a tennis ball, I'd think maybe rats or chipmunks?

I'm not sure if possum would eat strawberries or not. Rats or chipmunks might.

 

[lesa]

Kind of looks like woodchuck scat...They do live in holes. If you goggle animal scat, you will find helpful pics. I know it is gross- but it is better to know your enemy!!

 

[RidgebackRanch]

There appear to hairs in the scat and that makes me think it could some kind of predator. The foxes around here have a strange habit of leaving their calling cards in very obvious places as to let you know they were there. The strangest one I ever saw was in our goats grain dish. Weird!

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I certainly would not worry about it. Our world is full of night time creepy crawlers every night. Without being able to check the texture it looks like there is a lot of hair and roughage in there. The size indicates to me the following animals . . .
Owl
Hawk
Young Coyote
Raccoon
Fox

The hole could be mice, moles, voles, hornets, chipmunks, and lots of other small burrowing animals. I think the hole is much more to be concerned with than thew scat. Drop a few pieces of De-Con rat poison in there but make sure it goes down to where a dog or cat cannot get to it. If your dog or cat is a digger I would not do it.

Investigating animal scat is a fun skill for youngsters to learn and a valuable skill for woodsmen or survivalists. It's almost a science of it's own.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i was thinking skunk. i used to see it all the time in the backyard at my parents' house. they have a fenced in yard but skunks seemed to flock to their yard and dig their new home under the shed each year. they used to go crazy for the little wild strawberries all over the yard too.

 

[ducks4you]

It is not possum poo. They sometimes get into my barn's loft and leave messes. They "extrude" their poo and the end is like a tail.

 

[desertlady]

Sunny and the 5 egg layers, has this pest been back ?

 

[OldGuy43]

Knowing what part of the country you're in, and what sort of area (urban, rural, woodland etc.) might help with ID.

We had a pet possum once and she used the cat's litter box. Poo wasn't that dark, but that might depend on what it's eating. Shape is about right.

 

[Sunny & the 5 egg layers]

Sunny and the 5 egg layers, has this pest been back ?

We have 3 holes in the garden so far this year. I am pretty sure those belong to a chipmunk.

We also have found poop in the garden (very similar to last years poop in those photos). We have found poop in the onion bin, and garden path.

Something else made foot prints in my tomato and pepper bed. They are really deep, but really small. So the animal was small and heavy it seems.

I will try and take some pictures for you guys. I also set up a motion sensor in my garden so that I can hopefully see what my garden intruder is.

Thank you all for your input.