Box seat: scientists solve the mystery of why wombats have cube-shaped poo | Animals | The Guardian
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Scientists believe the cube shape of the wombat’s poo may aid in communication, as spherical faeces are more likely to roll away. Photograph: mlharing/Getty Images/iStockphoto
How wombats produce their cube-shape poo has long been a biological puzzle but now an international study has provided the answer to this unusual natural phenomenon.
The cube shape is formed within the intestines - not at the point of exit, as previously thought - according to research published in scientific journal Soft Matter on Thursday.
The paper expands upon preliminary findings first presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society's fluid dynamics division in Georgia in 2018.
New research - published today in our aptly named journal @SoftMatter, digests previous work demonstrating that wombat poo forms its distinctive shape within the wombat's intestines, not at the, er, point of exit as previously thought. @ScienceMagazinehttps://t.co/9K6QRwkDPn
— Royal Society of Chemistry (@RoySocChem) January 28, 2021
Dr Scott Carver, wildlife ecologist at the University of Tasmania and one of the authors of the research paper, said "there were wonderfully colourful hypotheses around but no one had tested it".
There was speculation that wombats had a square-shaped anal sphincter, that the faeces get squeezed between the pelvic bones, as well as the "complete nonsense" idea that wombats pat the faeces into shape after they deposit them.
The project originated four years ago when Carver was dissecting a euthanised wombat hit by a car and noticed the cubes in the last metre of the wombat's intestine. Carver described it as an "isn't that odd moment".
"The thing that is striking, how do you produce cubes inside essentially a soft tube?"
The team of researchers in Australia, including the head veterinarian at Taronga zoo, Larry Vogelnest, tested the tensile strings of the intestine while physicists in the US based at the Georgia Institute of Technology created mathematical models to simulate the production of cubes.
The team discovered big changes in the thickness of muscles inside the intestine, varying between two stiffer regions and two more flexible regions.
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"The rhythmical contractions help form the sharp corners of the cubes," Carver said.
When preliminary findings were presented in 2018 "at that point researchers believed there were four stiff and four flexible regions," he said. "But what final research has confirmed is that the wombat's intestine has two stiff and two flexible regions."
Since 2018, Australian researchers have performed the histology as well as a CT scan upon a live wombat, and concluded that the changes in muscle thickness, in addition to the drying out of the faecal material in the distal colon, produced the distinctive shape.
Asked why wombats have this feature, Carver said one theory was that wombats, with their strong sense of smell, communicate with each other via faeces and that the cube shape helps prevent the faeces from rolling away.
The researchers also found that cube-shaped faeces on an eight degree slope rolled far less than spherical-shaped models.
Vogelnest aided the research by facilitating an ethically approved CT scan of a live wombat, zoo resident Lucy-Lu.
"This was one of the more unusual research [projects] Taronga has been involved in, a bit quirky, but it does answer a very significant question, one that a lot of people ask" he said.
As well as the benefits of better understanding wombats themselves, Carver said the discovery highlighted a new way of manufacturing cubes inside a soft tube, which could be applied to other fields including manufacturing, clinical pathology and digestive health.
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Some things are really important, like seeing a picture of a square turd.
= shitting bricks
Perhaps not important, but, quite interesting. Sort of like cats poop 'tootsie rolls'.
I love wombats, they are really fun critters. When I lived in Australia I was a member of the Taronga Zoo Society which allowed us to work with the animals in their care. The majority of the time I would help out with the wombats.
I often wondered why they would poop in squares and now I know. Another one of life's mysteries solved.
Does that mean they don't need to sniff each other's butts???
I have seen this article and my day is now complete. My lifelong question finally answered.
They're cute. I'm not sure if their poop really fascinates me... but they're CUTE!
Proof that squares can go through round holes?
That goes against everything I was taught as a kid...
Morning.. Gotta love a bulldozer on legs...Wombats one of my favourites.. Come on you mob this beats bloody Politics..😁😁
I used to tend to one special little bulldozer at the Taronga Zoo. We'd be outside and he would bullrush me and bump into my legs. It's a false flag what he was really after were the shoelaces in my sneakers, he'd grab them and try to run off with the laces and of course with me since I still had my sneakers on.
He also loved to get his belly scratched.
Great memories.
Yep love them.. don't get many wombats where I live but other parts of Victoria they do. I have got two koalas out the front of my house at the moment. Their poo is in the shape of a cigar..🐨🐨🐨
One time at my daughter's house I went out on the porch for my morning coffee and there was a Koala sitting in my chair and he wouldn't move...LOL, so I sat next to him in another chair and we enjoyed the morning together.
No if they are comfy they will not move. They do get themselves in some awkward places though. Up power poles, in shops, up people's front doors, in cars and trying to get into people's houses..but we don't mind. We just gently move them on to where they should be..
Wait, I thought they have like 6 inch claws and aren't afraid to use them?
Evening. Yes they have claws but aren't that long. If cornered they will have ago at you...but they are quite vunerable.. especially if they run into a dog.🐨🐨
Yes!!
And now we know.
One of life's mysteries has been solved...😁😁
It gives a whole new meaning to the saying ''shit a brick''...