Scientists have long been baffled why wombats poo are square. But a recent international study has provided the answer to this unusual natural phenomenon.
In the past, people mostly believed that cube-shaped poo is formed because these marsupials have square sphincters. But the University of Tasmania wildlife ecologist Scott Carver said that the cube-shaped poo is formed much higher, in the wombat's intestine.
The research was published on January 28 in the scientific journal Soft Matter.
How Are the Cube-Shaped Poo of Wombats Formed
There have been various theories on how the wombats produce square feces. One of which is that they have a square sphincter, but experts said that the feces could get squeezed by the pelvis bones so that seems to be impossible. Another "nonsense" speculation is that wombats pat their feces into cubes after they defecate.
But a project that began four years ago had shed light on this unique poo. As Carver was dissecting a dead wombat that was hit by a car, he noticed that the poo inside the animal's last meter of the intestine is in the shape of a cube. He thought of it as odd so he decided to investigate further.
Together with a team of researchers in Australia, they created mathematical models that will simulate the cube-shaped poo production. They found big changes in the thickness of the intestines that vary in two stiff regions and two flexible regions.
The Guardian reported that rhythmical contractions inside the intestine help form the cubes inside the wombats. Then in 2018, the researchers conducted a CT scan on a live wombat and concluded that the distinct changes in the intestines and the drying of the stool in the distal colon help produce the bizarre shape of the poo.
Why Do Wombats Have Cube-Shaped Poo?
Now that the scientists know how wombats poo are formed, the next thing to do is find out its purpose. Why do wombats have square poo?
Scientists are not yet sure exactly why wombats have square poo but they think that it could be used by them to communicate with one another.
According to ScienceAlert, the wombats do not have good eyesight and so they use their poo to communicate with each other. They poop on logs, rocks, and other places to make their message visible, which suggests that the square shape of the poo might assist in the poo-stacking mechanism of the wombat. After all, round poo tends to roll away.
Another idea is that the cube-shaped poo allows for greater surface area to increase the dispersal rate of the wombat's scent to send social messages or let others know of their reproductive status.
On the other hand, some also said that it could just be a result of the poo being dehydrated in the gut. For instance, wombats poo in the zoo, which are more hydrated than those in the wild, tend to have poo that is less defined.
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