What Does Deer Poop Look Like?

Finding, recognizing, and interpreting deer scat is one of the best ways to understand how deer are using an area. Here’s what to look for

By Katie Hill / Outdoor Life

If you live or recreate anywhere in the United States, odds are you’ve walked past (or stepped in) deer poop. Whether you spend time in city parks, the backcountry, or just your vegetable garden, there’s a good chance deer are eating and, yeah, crapping somewhere nearby. The presence of deer poop—which most often looks like a pile of dark brown pellets—can tell you where deer are feeding, bedding, and traveling. Similarly, the absence of deer poop is important: If you’re not seeing deer poop, odds are there are few, if any deer that use that area.

But a lot of animals produce piles of brown pellets. That’s the main obstacle to correctly identifying deer scat: it can look a lot like other animal scats. Once you have an understanding of how to tell deer poop from rabbit poop, young black bear poop, pronghorn poop, and other species’ scat, you’ll be able to pick it out of a field, garden, or city park with ease—and adapt your deer hunting tactics accordingly. To do so, you should arm yourself with knowledge of what different scats look like. Let’s dive in. READ ON