Who Pooped in the Park?

Yep, that's right...I've solved the mystery of the animal poo we saw while hiking on the Grotto Falls trail in the Smokies. I'm sure so many of you who saw our vacation pictures have been losing sleep because I didn't label the poo picture with the type of animal from which it came. Well, I've been doing my research both online and in the book, "Who Pooped in the Park?"

For a minute while we were hiking on the poo filled trail, we were just sure it was bear doody (kind of wishful thinking because we wanted to think a bear might be nearby, but not actually visible). Then we thought it might be llama poopers because apparently they use llamas for transporting goods on this very trail and it is not uncommon to encounter them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays close to dark. Nope...not bear or llama doody.

After looking at many pictures and reading about animal "scat," the more formal name and a little nicer to say than poopy or doo-doo, I've concluded that it must be deer scat. I always thought deer poo was smaller than these piles, but I guess not.

I know, I know, it's pretty sad that I'm blogging about animal doody, but this has had me puzzled since we hiked this trail. By the way, the book, "Who Pooped in the Park?" was purchased by my dear mother out west and it refers to the animals of the Grand Teton National Park...but I'm pretty sure most deer have similar looking poopy regardless of their location.