Poo Patrol - Contribute to the Great Scat Adventure

Georgeanna Story, from ScatsAbout, will enlighten us about the weird and wonderful world of animal poop.  After a short walk at Bulahdelah Wetland (only 20 spots!), we will hear from Mat Bell, MidCoast Council’s Senior Ecologist, about their ongoing monitoring of dingo and fox scats collected from the Council Reserve System over the past few years. 
Georgeanna will teach us how to identify different animals by scat shape, smell and composition; and give a hands-on demo of how to analyse animal scats.

We will look at the results of scat analysis from you, the landholder, and have a lot of fun talking about poop!

Before the event is held, we are calling out for landholders to get involved by getting out and about on their properties and collecting predator scats for Georgeanna to analyse.   Attached is a guideline on what to look for when collecting scats and how to collect them safely. Please read this carefully before collecting any animal scats, as some native animals carry parasites that may be transmitted to humans via scat contact.  Recently we had luck with finding dingo and fox scats on forest trails, and other unidentified predator scats near or on fallen logs.  Rock outcrops can also be great spots to find spotted-tailed quoll latrines. 

Also be sure to follow Georgeanna's instructions for labelling and mailing the samples.  We need all samples in the mail by Friday 19th December at the latest.  This will give her time to process and analyse the samples before coming up and sharing the results with us in late January. 

Finally, if you are interested in Georgeanna's work, head over to ScatsAbout and take a look at her profile and history. I can also recommend an excellent reference book on the topic titled "Tracks, Scats and other Traces – A field guide to Australian Mammals" by Barbara Triggs.

** Unfortunately, due to the nature of this event, we cannot accommodate children. Please contact Isabelle for more information.

We really hope you can participate in this fun and exciting project.

Please reach out to Isabelle Strachan, Private Land Conservation Project Officer, if you have any questions.

0413 113 315 | plc@modcoast2tops.org.au