Weird garden animal - what is it?

[StrongLegs]

Hi,

I left my hamster's tube out in the garden to air overnight and some weird animal has very delicately done a poo right on top of the tube, and left is there like a precious gift.

I wondered if anyone might know what on earth animal would do such a thing?

The sheer expressiveness of it cracks me up.

The tube is 10cm diameter. Photo attached.

Thanks!

They should do a Mammal Scat of the UK tea towel with line drawings and scale.

With all due respect, a lot of people in semi-rural and town areas make a big deal about leaving food out for birds/foxes/squirrels/hedgehogs because they think they’re being kind but 99% of the time, all they do is attract rats.

We are scrupulous about never having any food source in our garden because most of our neighbours have decking which is a magnet for rats and foxes. Earlier this year, a plant in our garden seeded and for some reason unknown to us, it was a rat magnet. For two weeks until all the seed had gone and we had a lot of heavy rain, the rats were swarming in the bit of the garden.

99% of the time, all they do is attract rats.

I haven't seen a single rat in a few decades of feeding the birds and hedgehogs, and that's in various locations.

And my neighbours have decking.

@StrongLegs

I have bought a wildlife camera for ds's Christmas now. We have some really crazy going's on in our garden recently and I think it must all be foxes.

Once recently a really big cactus got dragged around, and it must have weighed the best part of a stone. Also today there were three pot plants from our pond fished out and thrown across the garden. I think foxes must like toys, just like dogs do.

We also get our herbaceous border dug up a lot.

Oddly, one time I found that 300L of water was missing from our pond, which is about the top 16cm. I have no idea how they did that.

Maybe with the camera we will find out.

We had this with our pond, it kept happening so often I was convinced there was a leak and spent all day emptying it to search for a hole, no luck. Trail camera showed up the culprit - a very thirsty badger. It also explain why things had moved or been knocked over. It's the digging that drives me nuts though, all of my tulip bulbs, it's like ping pong, I put them back, they dig them up again. And the last few weeks multiple holes in the lawn and border aargh. They even found a wasps nest that was buried in a border and ate the lot in two nightly visits, really interesting to see how much time they spend messing about on the camera, also don't seem bothered by the local cats. So perhaps you also have badgers?

@ANameChangeAgain

If the tube is only 10cm in diameter its rat poo.

I agree. That was my first thought, except rat poo isn't usually in a pile but more "strewn about"

@Dumplingfromdevonshire that would be amazing if we had badgers. I know there is a badger set at the school, which is about 0.3 of a mile away according to google maps, so it is possible definitely. I suppose I'll find out when the camera arrives.

We only dug the pond during the 2020 spring lockdown, so it's relatively new and I'm sure is probably attracting all sorts of things (in addition to me).

It's amazing that badgers can drink so much water. I also was convinced that we had a leak in our pond, but when I couldn't find the hole, I refilled it, and the level has never gone down again. I was starting to wonder if a person had fallen in in the night and made a huge tidal wave, but I couldn't think why they would also drag my massive cactus around and leave it on the ground.

@arrangeyourface I'm a bit torn about bird feeding. We had no birds at all in our garden until I started feeding them. Then in the summers even when I wasn't feeding they stuck around, and we had lots of nests with lots of baby birds in them. There was also constant bird activity with little gold finches picking the seeds off the dandelion heads.

The thing that really seems to cause a lot of trouble is the big plastic compost bins that are like rat hotels. The pest control office did says I shouldn't feed the birds though. I will miss seeing them though, as I always enjoy their bright colours in the winter. the baby rat was also cute