🦁
Kitimu says: "I know it sounds gross, but droppings are one of a tracker's BEST clues! They tell you which animal was here, what it ate, and how recently it passed by. Time to put on your detective hat — no touching though! Let's go, Cub!"
🎒 What You Need
Garden, park, or nature area
A stick for examining (NOT your hands!)
Pencil & notebook
Magnifying glass (optional)
Hand sanitiser or soap & water
Your worksheet
📋 How To Do It
Go on a dropping hunt: Walk slowly through your garden, a park, or a nature area. Look for animal droppings — bird splashes on rocks, dog droppings on paths, insect frass under trees, or buck pellets if you're in the bush. Try to find at least 3 different types.
Examine WITHOUT touching: Use a stick to gently turn over or break open each dropping (NEVER use your bare hands!). Look at the shape, size, and colour. Is it round? Tubular? Splattered? Pellet-shaped? Write down your observations.
Check the contents: Can you see seeds, berry skins, fur, feather bits, insect parts, or plant fibres inside? These contents tell you exactly what the animal ate! A dropping full of seeds means a fruit-eater. Fur and bone fragments mean a predator.
Estimate freshness: Is the dropping moist and dark (fresh — the animal was here recently) or dry and crumbly (old — it passed through days or weeks ago)? This helps trackers know how close the animal might still be.
Record your findings: On your worksheet, draw each dropping you found. Label the shape, size, contents, and your guess about which animal left it and what it ate. You've just read a menu from nature's restaurant!
Ranger Tip: Owl pellets are a tracker's treasure — owls swallow their prey whole and cough up a neat pellet of fur and bones. If you find one, carefully pull it apart with sticks to discover exactly what the owl ate for dinner!
Safety note: NEVER touch animal droppings with your bare hands — they can carry harmful bacteria and parasites. Always use a stick, and always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water when you're done. If you have hand sanitiser, use that too!
📸
Take a photo of the most interesting dropping you found (from a safe distance!) and share it in the Junior Rangers WhatsApp group!