Buck Crap


Guest deadstuff

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Guest deadstuff

I read somewhere years back you could tell the difference between the droppings of a buck and a doe because a buck's was clumped together in a wad, while the doe's droppings were loose. Has anybody else ever heard this or know if this is true?

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Re: Buck Crap

I was told dropping sizes are not a good indicator on gender, but it can help you judge the size of the deer. Clumped or not, wet or not, color of it, etc. is all based on the deer's diet, not gender, so it's not a good indicator to use to judge gender. The more moist droppings means the deer are eating a more moist diet like fruits and fresh vegetables, while a more solid dry dropping could indicate a lot of nuts and dry grasses being in the deer's diet and can help you determine where they are feeding primarily at.

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Re: Buck Crap

I've never heard that one. I do remember reading somewhere that if you count the number of pellets and it exceeds some magic number it is probably a buck. I do not believe that size, shape/form or number of pellets in a single dumping is definitive enough to sex the animal that deposited them. However, that does not mean that in combination with other clues left behind you can not accurately determine whether it is a buck or doe. In an area where tracks are easily followed for any distance one should be able to come up with enough information to determine sex and under the right conditions (snow being preferable) judge the size of the the animal, including rack size of a buck. An example; came upon a set of tracks where a 30-06 shell easily fits length wise and the track is over 2&1/2 inches wide and upon following said track it is observed that the stride is over 20 inches and the width is over 10 inches, also, the front tracks are wider than the back tracks. Droppings are on the large side with many pellets. As the critter urinated it dribbled as it walked for several yards. At this point, I am 100% sure that it is a buck and a large bodied one at that. As I continue to follow the buck I can see where he stopped to feed and there are imprints in the snow of the ends of the main beams, showing good spread and main beam length. Also in his wanderings, he seems to be avoiding closely spaced trees and brush. I also observe that his rack has hit some relatively high branches, knocking the snow off of them, which could be an indication of how high his rack is. One piece of the puzzle may not tell you much, but if you put all the pieces together they can tell a story.

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Re: Buck Crap

Steve aka buckee is an authority on this topic grin.gif. He has done extensive research.

Seriously Steve has some pics he posted a few years back of examples, maybe he still has them.

Have seen both the clumps and scattered droppings all around here, and while I would not deny the possibility that buck droppings are clumped, I read somewhere that diet might also have some effect on this. Thing with the diet idea that does not make sense though, is why would you see some droppings in clumps and others scattered in areas where the deer use the same sources of food essentially having the same diet.

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Re: Buck Crap

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I've heard that one before and there is no truth to it. The reason for the clumped has to do with the deer being somewhat constipated due to something it's eaten or it's the first bowel movement after they have gotten up from being bedded down.

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This is what i have heard alot of the time. Also have heard what your saying.

I dont think that the shape/size of there poop will tell you there gender.

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Guest anderson3

Re: Buck Crap

I have snooped through an awful lot of deer droppings and have done a lot of lab analysis. I don't think the clump vs. loose argument holds much weight in determining sex. The deer I have monitored have a lot more clumped piles when eating higher quality diets because the pellets are softer and tend to stick together. The deer who are hungry and overpopulated in a big woods (no agriculture or plots) almost always have hard little scattered piles. In the summer, deer on good feed in farm areas have lots of soft piles and even their poop pellets will be softer.

It would not be real difficult to develop a lab test for buck droppings vs. doe droppings if anyone would like to put up a few thousand dollars for the effort...then you could tell with some certainty which sex made the pile; though I'm not sure how useful that would be.

In most mammals, the large intestine draws water out of the poop. So the slower the rate of passage, the longer the poop will be in this part of the tract...and thus the 'harder' it will be.

All ruminants on a high quality diet have a much faster rate of passage...of feed through the animal...so the manure tends to be softer.

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