4 June 2016

Last month I hiked the well traveled Sugar Run Trail at Ohiopyle State Park.  At the top of the trail I saw footprints of people and dogs … and I encountered this.  I put my boot next to it for scale.

I didn’t see paw prints near it but the size of this scat pile indicates it was deposited by a large mammal. There’s not a lot of fur in it and it’s blue (fruit!) so this animal eats more than just meat.

The scat had been deposited so recently that I could smell it as I took the photograph. I found another, older pile further down the trail.  This large omnivorous mammal left his mark over and over again.  A black bear.

The bear lives here. I was just visiting.  Though he wasn’t in sight he was probably in earshot so I made human noise (speaking, whistling) so he’d know I was traveling through.

I’m sure he didn’t want to be surprised any more than I did!

(photo by Kate St. John)