Friday, January 7, 2011

Occam's razor in action

Yesterday morning I went out to release the chickens from the coop, and I was startled to see what looked like fresh elk poop right by the coop. Elk poop is disc-shaped with a depression in the middle, and this looked like a classic case. Wow, it's not too often we have elk passing through! I was thrilled.


Hoofprints in the snow confirmed it was indeed an ungulate...though the prints seemed a bit small for a full-grown elk.


Nonetheless I started building a little elk fantasy in my mind until I went into the haybarn and saw...


...Smokey, who obviously had jumped a fence during the night and parked herself where there was the most food.

-- Thus proving that Occam's razor (often misquoted as "the simplest explanation is more likely the correct one") applies here.

13 comments:

  1. Next time, when talking about poop, please drop a dime by the stuff so we can get a sense of scale. Or just grab a handful and hold it up to the camera. You wouldn't mind doing that for us, would you?? :-/

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let's put it this way: each poop disk is about the size of a dime. 'Nuff said.

    - Patrice

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not really elk-duds then, eh?

    snrk snrk

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's still mighty small for a heifer's poop. The tracks appear to be bovine, now that we know Smokey is on the loose and those are probably her hoofprints.

    Hey, I know, maybe the poop was left by the Bandits. (You know, Smokey and the Bandits?) Nevermind.

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's not bovine poo.... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'd have lost a bet if you told me that was cow poop. Guess I haven't been around enough cows.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's not cow poo. If it is, it's not like OUR cow's poo.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ohh My GOD, Your animal poop is throwing us into global warming or was it "climate change". I know it sounds funny but you can believe me when I say that animal agriculture is under attack. BIG TIME!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's not COW poo. It's CALF poo. Smokey is only about eight months old.

    - Patrice

    ReplyDelete
  10. Just scoop that "poo" up and throw it out before we all get in trouble here. O.K. ?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hahaha. Must have been the best night of Smokey's life! All you can eat buffet!

    Great post. As a city boy, it's always cool to see the inner workings of the country.

    Love it
    Thanks,
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm afraid I would have joined those swearing it wasn't a bovine product. Didn't realize calf poop was so different. Or perhaps someone just needs to tell smokey about Fiber One products...

    ReplyDelete
  13. I still want to see her hold it and take a picture to help determine scale!

    ReplyDelete