Guide
Brown bear
The brown bear is a huge omnivore of forests and mountains, and its droppings are as changeable as its diet — from berry-purple mush in autumn to hair-filled masses when it has been eating meat.
Identifying the droppings
- Scat is large and tubular, often 5 cm or more across — bigger than any dog or wolf could leave.
- Contents shift dramatically with the season: loose and full of berry skins and seeds in late summer, packed with vegetation in spring, or containing hair and bone after eating meat.
- Autumn droppings can be almost fluid and darkly stained from a berry-heavy diet.
- Forests, mountain slopes, and remote northern wild places are the settings.
In the field
Sheer size is the first clue — a brown bear's dropping dwarfs those of the forest's carnivores. After that, the season tells the story: a purple, seed-filled splat in an autumn clearing is a bear gorging on berries before winter.
Because a bear eats plants, insects, fish, and carrion depending on what is available, a single diet label never captures it. Treat the varied, seasonal contents as the signature rather than expecting one consistent look.
Game facts
- Class
- Mammal
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Habitat
- Forest, Mountains, Tundra
- Region
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Typical adult weight
- 250 kg
- Typical body length
- 2 m
- Activity
- Active at dawn and dusk
- Social pattern
- Mostly solitary
- Conservation
- Least concern
- Puzzle photos
- 8
In the game
Brown bear often breaks the simple herbivore-versus-carnivore pattern in the game; treat its diet as a broad, flexible clue.
Similar guesses
Photo sources
Image credits are shown after each puzzle to avoid spoiling the answer.
- Bear Scat Okanagan Black Bear.jpgAccuruss · CC0
- Young bear scat (8103785963).jpgUmberto Vesco · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Bear Scat (1098653371).jpgChris M Morris · CC BY 2.0