Can I use a motorcycle 12volt battery in place of a 12volt electric scooter battery and how or why not. I never thought to ask.

No, while, it would operate for a short period. Scooter and electric bike batteries are a deep cell battery, make to operate for longer periods.

So your battery may power a scooter for 30 minutes to a hour, it will not allow it to operate for hours.

A trolling motor battery would work, since they are deep cell

I agree with Fr_Chuck, though the correct term is "deep cycle" battery. These are batteries that are specifically designed for applications where the battery provides energy for long periods of time, discharging almost completely before being recharged. Regular car or motorcycle batteries are different - they are designed to provide high current to run the starter motor for perhaps a few seconds, then recharge once the engine has started. So the motorcycle battery will work for some period of time, but after a few cycles of extended use and recharging you will probably find that it loses its ability to fully recharge.

Sorry for the wrong word. I had not done this for a while. There is also, a very obvious difference. ( or at least 8 or 9 years ago) time does fly. Between brands, our office changed to a cheaper import and we had about a 10 percent failure rate and the batteries lasted less time. So, stay with better grade batteries.