Help to identify a visitor please

nicholas bentley · #1 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 03:02 PM

I fund some animal faeces on a shelf in the porch outside my back door - suburban home counties. It was in piles of 6 - 10 faeces, each item being black and about 30mm x 2mm in size.
My first thought was some kind of small mammal, but I can't think what - mouse/rat/bat droppings are small pellets, not long strings like this, as far as I know.
I wonder, is it possibly a frog? I have found on the internet that frogs do poo a lot in comparison with their size, and I do have a pond with frogs.
I have photos that I can send, but I can't post them here.
Please help, if you can, because if it's something nasty, like a rat, I have got to do something.

Thank you,

Hedge Witch · #2 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 03:15 PM

Hi Nicholas, welcome to WAB.

Please post a picture if you can.

Cheers

nicholas bentley · #3 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 04:28 PM

Hedgewitch,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I hope this photo thing works, I didn't understand it at first, & this is my first photo posting:-)

To help with scale, the yellow & white thing in photo1 is a marigold glove and the orange thing on the shelf is a sainsburys carrier bag.

Good luck,

Nick

Hedge Witch · #4 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 04:47 PM

What sort of ceiling is there to the porch?

At the moment I'm wondering if the droppings were deposited from a height.

The reason I think this is the way they are on top of objects that are not particularly attractive to climb onto.

nicholas bentley · #5 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 05:01 PM

Where they were was not directly below anything, other than a shelf - see this photo: the glove & bag were stuffed in the small gap (as you do) between the wine box & the wall, under the other, white, shelf.
It is possible that it was deposited from the underside of the upper shelf, but I can't think what would do that.

N.

Hedge Witch · #6 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 05:36 PM

If they are rat droppings, they are not typical ones.

They are more like Weasel droppings, but they are probably not. They don't look twisted enough and it's very unlikely a weasel would be running round your porch.

Because I hear rat droppings are highly variable, there is a possibility that it was a rat.

I would put down a humane trap suitable for catching a rat, just to put your mind at rest.

Just one more thought, picture 4 shows a shelf. It may be an illusion, but it is possible that tracks are visible on this shelf, which could help ID.

PS I don't think it was a frog.

shirl · #7 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 06:11 PM

The only thing I can think of at the moment is like hedgewitch mentioned, weasel / stoat but they don't seem to have that twisted appearance. Weasel tends to be longer than stoat and thinner, but still very twisted at the ends. I would say definitely not rat though.

Shirl

Tracey.A · #8 (**permalink**) 29-09-2008, 06:16 PM

I don't think they are weasel either, they just aren't the right twisted shape. I have no idea what they are, they don't look like anything that I know.

Tracey