The Tau of Poo

Sensitive readers should note the missing 'h' from the final word.  This is not about a hunny muncher or Eastern Religions.  Indeed the replacement of 'o' by 'u' shifts into scientific endeavours denoted by Tau rather than the metaphysics of Tao.  It is helpful that one of the uses of Tau listed by Wikipedia is "The lifetime of a spontaneous emission process" and that is exactly what we're at!

I have put up a few posts on my reveg blog about a rabbit control program we are undertaking.  One of the key issues in this is working out where the bunnies are dining, and when something is dining on the bait is it wabbit or something else?  The poop left at the feeding station is a good indicator of that and one of those involved in the work was able to put up a useful guide for telling if one is dealing with hare or rabbit.

"Regarding the difference between rabbit and hare scats, good question! According to the web site, rabbit scats are 5mm to 11mm and hare 10mm to 17mm (I converted from imperial to metric), the ones I observed were about 4mm to 6mm diameter and looked a lot like the ones in the picture on that website. Sounds like hare is more the size of small wallaby scat."
To illustrate this point I decided to photograph the various form of faecal matter around our property.  I will begin with rabbit.  Some lumps of carrot and gum leaves give an idea of scale.
The next image are the traces of a large male Eastern Grey Kangaroo, collected on our lawn.  They are about 4 times the linear size of the rabbit turds and not so spherical.
Next up we have Wombat.  The samples photographed were a bit old - surprisingly I had trouble finding some specimens which are usually difficult to avoid ('Pon my sole' etc).  The first image gives an idea of the shape while the second indicates the usual positioning of the dump, as a territorial marker on something elevated such as this rock.

In the last couple of days wombat poop has returned to its usual spot of pre-eminence.   The next two miages are of samples deposited in our drive (rudely, in the middle of the day).  Possibly this reflects the rather damp weather leading the marsupial to contemplate the possible rise in Creek level.

The final image is of fox poop.  I didn't attempt to dissect it to find what the fox was eating.  I know part of the answer: not enough rabbits!
A concluding hint: whatever form of residue you find, do NOT let your dog roll in it.  This applies specially to fox crap!  Immediate bathing is essential, as is a subsequent shower for the bather!

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