The linked article does say "cervids tend To follow an extremely regular cycle of consumption, rumination and defecation (Oldemeyer & Franzmann, 1981; Dinerstei

The linked article does say "cervids tend To follow an extremely regular cycle of consumption, rumination and defecation (Oldemeyer & Franzmann, 1981; Dinerstein & Dublin, 1982), pellet group counts inevitably provide some indication of the habitats utilized regularly by a species". One of those references, "Oldemeyer & Franzmann, 1981" spends a large amount of time discussing how they correlate the "pellet count" with the actual defecation amount, and it's not as simple as "Caribou defecate where they ruminate, not standing on the snow.". [1] http://alcesjournal.org/index.php/alces/article/viewFile/117/166 http://alcesjournal.org/index.php/alces/article/viewFile/117...