Efficacy of Feces as an Attractant for Mammalian Carnivores

Abstract

Researchers often rely on fatty acid scent tablets and commercial attractants to lure animals to specific locations. Feces have been tested as attractants in a liquidized state, but not in their natural form, which provides a visual cue along with an olfactory cue. We used 1-m diameter tracking stations of sand and soil to record tracks of animals that visited randomly assigned feces from captive coyotes (Canis latrans) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) and fatty acid scent tablets. Stations were established each season for 1 year and distributed equally between prairie and woodland habitats. We detected no difference in coyote visits to stations baited with coyote feces or bobcat feces. Likewise, bobcats showed no preference for 1 feces type over the other. Both bobcats and coyotes preferred feces to fatty acid scent tablets.