Did you know - Wombats excrete square faeces

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Did you know that wombats' faeces are cubic in shape? Rachel Lovejoy (@Raelove) wrote about pork sausage patties being too small to fill a breakfast bun nicely. And wouldn't it be nice if bacon was sold in round pieces. Which led me to think about square patties and rashers – and then it seemed it was a simple jump to think about cubic faeces. Wombats are found in most states of Australia.The cubic shape of the wombat's poo comes from the long, slow, digestive process. It takes 14 to 18 days for the wombat to draw every bit of nutrient and water from its food. Horizontal ridges in the first part of the large intestine contribute to the shape and the smoother surface of the latter part allows the cubic shape to remain. Because by this point the faeces are highly compacted, they are excreted as cubes. Contrary to what you might expect, the wombat does not have a square anus. They produce 80 to 100 cubes per night (wombats are nocturnal). Wombats, like most animals, gain all sorts of information from poo. It marks out their territory and the hormonal content lets males know when females are most fertile. Poo is often deposited on tops of rocks and logs and the cube shape means that mostly it stays where it is excreted and doesn't roll away. Other wombats are less likely to miss these territorial signs and possible confrontations are avoided. Here endeth the lesson.