8MOE: S1_E5: Animal Poop

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Transcript:

Opening

Welcome everyone to another episode of 8 minutes of Eww! The place where we use curiosity and science to turn fear into fascination and those ewww’s into Oooo’s. Oh! By the way, I’m your host Ms. Mallory, the Curious Conservationist and self-proclaimed grosslologist. Let’s get started.

Intro

Today we are diving deep into some pretty daring dung. Why? Because all animals poop.  

Birds. Insects. Fish. Reptiles. Amphibians. Mammals. Yes, we all poo, poo too. Whatever you want to call it, poop happens.  Every living thing on this planet makes waste.  Even plants. Their waste is the air we breathe.  Like eating a juicy strawberry or crunchy carrot?  They, more than likely, grew from a plant that was growing in rich soil made from earthworm and insect dung.  

So even though it maxes out our gross radar, poo is pretty important.  And there are many words to describe animal waste. Cow poop is also known as dung, pies or chips.  All farm animal waste is collectively called manure.  Predators- like foxes and coyotes- construct scat. Grass-eaters (like deer and rabbits) produce pellets. Birds drop droppings. Bats give guano.  And if you want to sound really fancy and scientific, you can use words like feces, excreta or dejecta to describe the gooey mess. 

And can you believe that animal poop is so popular that there are actual scientists that become excreta experts?  They are called scatologists. They can learn a lot about an animal by looking at the piles it leaves behind.  For instance, carnivore poop may have hair, bones and insect parts in it. Meanwhile, an herbivore pellet may have bits of plants and berries.  And an omnivore, well may have a mix of both.    

To some animals, poo is a tasty treat. . or even a delicious meal.  I know.  You can say it.  Ewwwwww. The act of popping a poo poo snack or feasting on a poo poo platter (whether of your own or of another) is called coprophagy. It comes from the Greek words Kopra- meaning dung, and -phagos- meaning eating.  Sounds pretty fitting to me. 

You may have seen your dog do this a time or two.  No one really knows why they do it, but some think they do it because they are lacking certain vitamins or minerals.  Most veterinarians would say that the act won’t hurt Fido, but you may not want to let him lick your face after. 

But dining on dung is nothing out of the ordinary in the animal kingdom.  Rabbits, for instance, eat their poop as part of their daily diet. Their metabolism is so fast, the plant matter they ate will pass through their digestive system before it’s completely broken down.  This first round of pellets are called cecotropes and are usually black, soft and full of leftover nutrients. And instead of wasting all those precious nutrients, the rabbit will simply give the pellet another run through their intestines to get what was missed the first time.  The second round of pelleted poo are made up of much smaller, much harder balls that are often seen in small piles.  These pellets the rabbits will not eat again. 

And rabbits are the only mammals to nibble on number two’s, non-human primates like chimps and orangutans have been documented doing the deed; and young animals- like hippos and elephant calves- they  eat the feces of family members to introduce beneficial bacteria into the gut to aide in breaking down tough leaves and grasses.  

But the animal that takes dung dining to a whole other level is the dung beetle.  And according to an article by National Geographic, there are over 8,000 dung beetle species that live throughout the world, living on every continent besides antarctica.  And amazingly enough, North America has about 75 native species cruising around. They come in all colors , from dull black to metallic green. But it isn’t the manure the beetles want, it’s the liquid.  Mmmmmm. So, apparently, fresher is better. There are different types of dung beetles too.  Scientists group them into dwellers, tunnelers and rollers.  Dwellers find a pile of warm dung and are happy as a clam right where they are.  Tunnelers will dig down through the warm pile and bury a portion underground.  And lastly, we have our rollers- which are my favorite. Rollers will gather some of the prized poo into a ball, roll it away (navigating by the milky way, I might add) and then bury it. But this buried treasure isn’t just for late night dining; it’s used as a nursery too. 

Okay, you ready for my coolest and grossest animal poo fact? Here it is. Have you ever been to the white sandy beaches of Hawaii?  Or maybe you have just seen a picture?  Well each of those beautifully pristine, white grains of sand that people live to lounge in are actually the poop of the parrotfish.  Yep.  Promise, it’s the truth. These vibrant, tropical fish eat algae.  And this algae grows on rocks and dead coral. The parrotfish will use it’s parrot-like beak to scrape and bite the algae off of the rocks, but sometimes they ingest bits of rock and coral too. This isn’t a problem for the parrot-fish.  The inedible calcium carbonate gets ground up in their gut and exits as the soft white sand you may bury your toes in one day.

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And did you know animal poop is inspiring new inventions and technology?  Scientists, engineers and inventors are studying how animal poop protects seeds in environments that are hard to grow in. You see, when animals ingest plants and fruits, the seeds are passed through their digestive system.  Plants use this to their advantage, hoping the animal to fly, walk, hop, scurry or swim somewhere else before pooping out the seeds so the plant’s genes can be spread to other places. When the seed is passed through the body, the stinky waste functions as natural protection while the seed develops roots and taps into water resources necessary for further development. A new invention called the Waterboxx® plant cocoon serves as an incubator to help trees survive through their sensitive baby phase as the seed begins to grow. The box is designed to protect the seedling from too much sun and wind, and also helps the new plant collect water. This can be very helpful in areas that are hard to grow trees or food, like the deserts. Because the Waterboxx plant cocoon only needs to be filled once and then uses rainfall to refill, it gets rid of a lot of the hard work it takes to grow plants where water isn’t plentiful. 

Outro

Well, my aspiring grossologists, sadly my 8 minutes is up, but before I go I wanted to ask a favor.  Your feedback fuels this program.  If this episode changes the way you look at the the back end of digestion or you have a request for another gross,but fascinating topic, please send me a message by clicking the link in the shownotes. 

Thanks again for joining me and set those notifications so you don’t miss the next 8 minutes of Eww.