They found lots of interesting things in the scat, from blueberry seeds to deer hair to beaver bones. “And some random stuff, like chunks of rubber … Part of a Land O’Lakes butter carton.’’…
It’s like finding a needle in a haystack, or that time when your cousin swallowed a penny and then got it back later.
“And some random stuff, like chunks of rubber … Part of a Land O’Lakes butter carton,’’ Thomas Gable, lead researcher on the, told the Forum News Service. “And then miscellaneous things they eat, like turtle shells and snake skins and bird feet. … If wolves can catch it and kill it, they will eat it.’’
But perhaps the most unusual thing they found in wolf scat were little metal tags. The tags belonged to beavers that were part of a National Park Service study. The park happens to be one of the most beaver-rich regions in the U.S. and wildlife managers there study beaver population fluctuations. Beavers that were trapped, studied and released in the study got a tag in each ear.
For perspective, only a tiny fraction of the beavers in the area carried ear tags. And the hundreds of wolves in the area produce thousands of droppings each year, of which only a tiny fraction were actually picked up by researchers. So with all that dung and so few ear tags out there, the odds of finding a tag in a turd were pretty low.
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