In fact any good Bigfooter has to talk scat and in fact there are occasions when you should expect to actually handle the stuff, break it apart with your fingers and sort through it (many people wear plastic gloves for this). And you might have to be able to answer such questions as "what does the presence of plant food 'X' imply?" when plant food 'X' might have certain pharmaceutical properties,or a distinctive odour, or perhaps was probably just eaten as roughage. And it's good to be able to recognise parts from insects and small mammals (rodents), salamanders or frogs, or small fish bones, snail shells or bird feathers, say.
If you have ready access to a good lab to do analysis for you, that is alwas a good thing, too.
Robin sings the praises of scat....
In fact any good Bigfooter has to talk scat and in fact there are occasions when you should expect to actually handle the stuff, break it apart with your fingers and sort through it (many people wear plastic gloves for this). And you might have to be able to answer such questions as "what does the presence of plant food 'X' imply?" when plant food 'X' might have certain pharmaceutical properties,or a distinctive odour, or perhaps was probably just eaten as roughage. And it's good to be able to recognise parts from insects and small mammals (rodents), salamanders or frogs, or small fish bones, snail shells or bird feathers, say.
ReplyDeleteIf you have ready access to a good lab to do analysis for you, that is alwas a good thing, too.
Best Wishes, Dale D.