Abstract The aims of this study were: to devise an easy method for the evaluation of the differences in the diet between two or more samples of fox scats collected along transects; to elucidate seasonal and local variations in the consumption of mammals. The study area (2000 ha) is located in the Prealps of the province of Belluno (municipality of Ponte nelle Alpi). Before our analysis of the scats, we evaluated the laboratory procedures used by previous Authors (Reynolds and Aebischer, 1991). We suggest a "semi-quantitative" method that allows us to obtain more information than with "qualitative" methods alone.