The curious cubed case for wombat poo!
One of the best parts before we flush is to marvel at what our bodies have just unloaded! Dumps come in all shapes and size and vary in color. However, if a pooper were to start crapping-out perfect cubes, it would no doubt be a cause for concern.
Fortunately, humans do not have this issue; if you do, go see a doctor… now!
One cute little creature just so happens to play shapes with their poo on the regular. The enigma of why wombat feces resembles cubes has baffled scientists for years. Finally, they claim to have cracked the case.
Cubes aren’t just in the form of sugar!
Bare-nosed wombats, also known as common wombats, inhabit the woodlands of hilly regions in southern and southeastern Australia as well as Tasmania. These adorable marsupials are famous for their peculiar cubic droppings, which researchers suspect they strategically disperse as a way to communicate with one another.
After conducting laboratory experiments and employing mathematical models a group of scientists has pinpointed the reason behind this phenomenon.
They discovered that the wombat’s intestine, measuring approximately 33 feet in length—about ten times the length of its body—contains two rigid and two flexible regions along its circumference. Scott Carver, a wildlife ecologist from the University of Tasmania, explained, “This ability to form relatively uniform, clean-cut feces is unique in the animal kingdom.”
We communicate via iPhones, wombats keep in-touch via poo
He further elaborated, “They place these feces at prominent points in their home range, such as around a rock or a log, to communicate with each other. Our research found that these cubes are formed within the last 17 percent of the colon intestine.”
The scientists attribute the distinctive cubic shape of wombat droppings to a combination of drying within the colon and muscular contractions, resulting in uniform size and distinct corners.
The fun-cubic shape of poop does not come without any strain. It appears as though wombats are constantly constipated with respect to their dumping habits in comparison to human-poopers.
“In humans, food passes through the digestive tract in one or two days, but wombats’ digestive processes can take up to four times as long, allowing them to extract maximum nutritional content from their food,” Carver explained.
Wombats should probably hydrate more…
Additionally, wombats produce drier feces compared to humans, as they are more efficient at extracting water from the intestine.
The revelation that these cubes are formed within a flexible tube presents “an entirely new way of manufacturing cubes,” Carver noted. This discovery could have implications not only for understanding animal biology but also for fields such as manufacturing, clinical pathology and digestive health.
This present-day understood mystery of cubic wombat poop could also shed light on other fascinating aspects of animal physiology with potential wider implications across various disciplines.
Do you crap cubes? We surely hope not! What is the optimum poop shape for you? We’d love to hear from ya! Shoot us a note! Or drop a comment on this article or any others that flush your senses.