Sunday, June 08, 2014

A POO PUZZLER

One of the joys of working at a pre-K through 12th grade school is the enthusiasm of the elementary kids.
If you are the science teacher, they assume they should bring you every bit of wildlife that crosses the campus, whether the critter is injured or not.

Last week a small boy and girl showed up during my planning period with a critter who was up against the school wall and going nowhere.

So of course, they brought it to me.
I thanked them, and as I was telling them that I would let it go in a safe place, it dropped a load on my desk.

There was much nose wrinkling and "eeeuuuu"s by the small ones and they bounced on out of the room.

So, Pure Florida veterans ... Who flung poo?

(I gave you a size reference, serious poo ponderers will appreciate that.)

15 comments:

Julie Zickefoose said...

Lord help me, the first to comment on a poo mystery. Not that that's out of character, being a poo hound. My first impression was "herp" from the size and composition (admittedly hard to discern). Looks like it's made up of insect parts. Lacks a dollop of white urates on the end, which more or less rules out most snakes (though our copperheads have pale tan turds w/o separate urates). I'm goin' for some kind of toad. Hope I haven't spoiled the fun. Probably haven't. I'm wrong a lot. Word confirmation says, "Please prove you're not a poo hound."--Zick

R.Powers said...

I KNEW this POO would attract YOU, Zick.
Watched you get all tickled over bobcat scat at the Enchanted Forest.
This poo is from a herpy favorite of yours, not the toad you suspected.

Heather M. said...

I'm very curious about this poo as well! Something is leaving droppings that look EXACTLY like that on my porch at the edges of the walls nearly every day. (Actually I think it's done at night. I live in coastal S. Carolina.) I've been meaning to see if the internet has sites dedicated to identifying mysterious poop...

threecollie said...

How about some kind of turtle?

Julie Zickefoose said...

Ah. Thank you for the hint, Sir. I am now switching my guess to gray tree frog. Yes I am. And I have the photos to go with that guess. I do not know what I was thinking before. Well, I mean, the distinction between toad poo and tree frog poo is very fine, but for us poohounds, this is important stuff.

R.Powers said...

Ok -Zick, I forgot you like grey treefrogs so much. Not correct yet...keep slugging away at it.

Julie Zickefoose said...

FLORIDA BOX TURTLE DANGIT

R.Powers said...

AND we have a winner! A young Florida box turtle. Congrats Zick!

Julie Zickefoose said...

Keep slugging away at it. I...get...it...three hours later. RIP Sluggo, my fine gentleman boxy. POST MORE POO MYSTERIES!! NOW!!
S. Chimp

mark P said...

I'm glad you all figured it out. I would never have guessed, much less known.

Kort said...

To me that looks like poo from a large "Curly Tail" lizard. They get pretty big down our way in South FL, and I know I've seen them leave disgested bugs in such a state in and around our house.

Kort said...

Oops, guess I was wrong. Congrats to Zick.

Sayre said...

Once you said "herp", I thought turtle. Not any one specifically, just turtle in general.

R.Powers said...

Three Collie,
Good job on an early accurate guess!

Anonymous said...

I read the comments, so I see that the mystery has been solved. Very interesting. We don't see turtles here, so that poo would have been a complete mystery to me.