It saddens me somewhat to say that for 45 years I have had to study scat. Poop. Poo or whatever you choose to call it.
Lynx, puma, leopard, fox (lots of fox poop), birds, domestic dog and cat and a great deal of hedgehog poop. So when a member of a local wildlife group asked which animal had left scat on the allotment I told her it was hedgehog. Another member said it looked like fox while another stated as fact that hedgehog poop was bullet sized (no calibre was mentioned) and shiny.
In fact both the fox and hedgehog can have similar scat depending on what they eat. Insects such as beetles and you find the small tar looking poop. A neighbour once told me that he had been in a feud for years with a neighbour because "He keeps throwing bits of tar into my lawn -look there!" and he pointed. I looked and got closer and pointed at it: "This?" I asked. "Yes" he said angrily. I pointed out that it was hedgehog poo. He still hated the neighbour.
I opened my front door earlier this year to see what appeared to be a long cat scat...I looked again and rea;lised that it was an unbroken, moist (not dry) hedgehog poo -I even caught it doing its business on camera! The adult hogs, and now the two new youngsters drink every night after food from the water bowl as they have a mix of wet dog food and dry cat food (cat food was for some of the local strays originally).
I have seen the small, tar-like droppings, longer unbroken ones as well. Just as with domestic cats and dogs the food given can change the "end product". I have seen the "norm" fox scat only in the wild but in urban areas they have a good diet but I have seen foxes leave behind hedgehog like poop.
So, for your scrutiny I give you sample images!
Fox
Hedgehog
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