Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Scat

I haven't done a lot of elk hunting (I've mostly hunted deer and antelope), but I have some land in Montana and I've caught elk on my game cams. I know what deer and antelope scat look like, but when I was on my land last week I saw a lot of scat in the snow that was obviously recent, but I couldn't tell if it was mule deer or elk. Is there anything in particular that is unique to elk that would distinguish it from deer?

For example, here are a few pics of the scat I saw. There were tracks that I knew were from the local mulies, and the scat around those tracks was smaller in size and quantity, but I couldn't tell whether these were just from larger mulie bucks or, hopefully, elk.

You can tell the difference by the taste.....

Likely deer.

Full turd



Pellet sized Scat



Don, can tell you how many antlers an elk has by the taste. Grin 😎

Smart Pills. Looks like Elk $hit, Tastes like Elk $hit, Smells like Elk $hit, Your getting smarter already. Rio7

Elk droppings look different depending on time of year.When it starts to green up and everything is lush,it can look like small cow pies. as the grass dries up, you will see variations.When grass goes away and a lot of the food is browse with some grass,it turns into harder pellets.
Generally elk pellets are about 3 times the size of deer

The top pic looks like spring or summer. It has more water in it from green plants than what you'll see in the fall.

Elk and deer look pretty much alike except for size. They could be a calf but the tracks look too small. The tracks are too melted to really ID but I'm thinking it's a deer.

BTW, how did animal poop get the same name as a word meaning 'go away'?

It looks like deer to me but the fist 2 pictures are elk and the last one.

Mostly size if looking at poop. A snap with tracks around. Also, mule deer typically drag their feet through snow. I.e Deer don't pick feet up high enough so there is a shallow trough between tracks.

One would think we'd have a pic. Will have to get Cookie out in the back yard tomorrow.

Scat LOL. Kaliforniia showing through.

Remesen, if there were elk around you would know by the tracks, bigger than mule deer or whitetail and stride length is obviously longer. Those pics you show are typical of mule deer droppings. Depending on what they are eating often times elk pellets will look as though someone gave them a little pinch them and squished some together. Again just depends on what they eat in your area. As mentioned above the size generally is larger as well.