How to distinguish between the scats of Cats ( Leopard, clouded leopards, jungle cat, marbled cat, leopard cat), civets (small and large indian civets) and canids (Dhole, golden jackel)?
the most secure way would be DNA Barcoding but this is quite expensive and not always easy to do if the scats aren´t fresh. The other way is to measure the scats (especially the diameter) and compare it with a book ( for african mammals for example Scatalog by Kevin Murray). Then you can wash them until you only have hairs left (most of them will be prey hairs). You then have to separate different types of hair and determine them under a microscope using reference hairs. They all have a different medulla and cuticula structure. I´ve done this for Leopard, Hyaena and Jackals in Namibia.
Thank you Winter for your response! Though we can get reference for size of African mammals, I am unable to find such reference for mammals of South Asia/Nepal.
For African animals I'd recommend this book: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WcDPj5hgT30C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false and then you need to apply heir general approach to your study species - a good starting point would be to get photos or samples from zoo animals - if all else fails you can do it by molecular analysis for DNA. Then you can write the next field guide...
If you only need to differentiate those of felids, from civets, from canids, then appearance and smell (if fresh) can be sufficient to trained observers. However, it is far more complicated if you want to tell individual species apart because, for example, the diets and physiology of the smaller felids are very similar. If you need this data immediately, then DNA analysis is the gold standard (but the most expensive). If you have some time before you need to start collecting data, then you can train dogs to recognise scats from different species (and even from different individuals), but for that many species you would need quite a few dogs. Of course, you would need to have scats from known species in the first place to train the dogs with (zoos are a reliable source).
Thank you O'Brien for your suggestion! I am interested to distinguish the scats already collected from the field. My intention is to use this knowledge in my future field studies!
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