How to identify different animal poo
Not sure about the poo you’ve found? Please get in touch with us! Report this online (ideally with a ruler for scale in a photo) or call 0800 NO RATS (0800 667 287). It’s better to be safe than sorry!
You might see droppings or poo around your place. Remarkably, rat and wētā droppings look very similar! This guide can help you tell them apart.
Wētā droppingsWētā droppings:
- Round like a jelly bean with a blunt end, around 10mm long
- Ridged lengthwise and a striped appearance that fades over time
- Often found near an entrance to a burrow in a tree
- May smell like vanilla
Norway rat droppingsNorway rat droppings:
- Cylindrical pellets between 13 – 19mm long
- Larger and have rounder tips compared to Ship rat droppings
- Likely to contain hair
Ship rat droppingsShip rat droppings:
- Small cylindrical pellets between 6 – 13mm long
- Smaller and thinner than Norway rat droppings, and taper to a sharper point
- Likely to contain hair
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Did you know – one te reo Māori word for poo is weta (without macrons).