https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wombat-p ... 0fb280e1ab

Scientists Now Know Why Wombat Poop Comes Out In Cubes



Wombats, which are native to Australia, are known across the globe for their cuteness and their unique poop, which comes out in cubes. The geometric fecal phenomenon has long been a mystery — until now.

A team of scientists finally cracked the science behind wombat poo, and published their findings in the aptly named Soft Matter journal last month.

According to the paper, called “Intestines of non-uniform stiffness mold the corners of wombat feces,” researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Tasmania and the Taronga Conservation Society dissected dead wombats that had died after being hit by vehicles, and noticed that the guts of the creatures contained layers of muscle and tissue, with two stiff areas and two more flexible ones.

After creating a mathematical model to emulate how this gut might expand and contract during food digestion, the researchers determined that after feces are dried out in the extremely long wombat colon (roughly 10 meters, or 33 feet, in length), the stiff and flexible regions contract in tandem, sculpting the poop into its unique shape.

More at link.

https://youtu.be/
You've heard of $h!t bricks? These guys apparently do.

Science. It solves things.

Wombats are native to South Australia, where I live; in fact the hairy-nosed wombat is South Australia's State Faunal Emblem. This unfortunately doesn't prevent them from being a sadly common roadkill, as a percentage of their estimated total population, which isn't very large.

They're protected, like all (AFAIK) native species - they've been regarded as rural pests because of their very extensive digging lifestyle, and were often exterminated by farmers, as much as they could. A fence won't keep a wombat out! They're nocturnal largely, and can exist with incredibly little water. I'd heard about the cubic faeces - the incredibly long colon means that a maximum of water is reabsorbed into the bloodstream, but had never heard anything else in any detail, even here, so thank you for posting this, Sutz!

I'm amazed it hasn't appeared in the media here yet, AFAIK, but it could have, for all I know. Quirky things like this are always well received, especially if local.

Speaking of wombats as a tragic roadkill, they are a real menace driving at night in rural areas, if they are crossing a road, especially if you don't have good headlights and/or are driving too fast. They are very slow, very heavy, and just the wrong height to make a car risk a roll over, especially at high speed. I know of at least one fatal accident with wankers driving at 120mph/200kph who hit a wombat at night on an open rural highway (which is mostly only one lane each way here).

I don't like driving at night in rural areas - kangaroos aren't fun to hit, either. I've never had any encounters though, or with wombats.

Anyway, I suspect a wombat could maybe dig more than most animals, apart from aardvarks. Both very interesting animals.

As they all are.

Aussie Seahawk wrote:Wombats are native to South Australia, where I live; in fact the hairy-nosed wombat is South Australia's State Faunal Emblem. This unfortunately doesn't prevent them from being a sadly common roadkill, as a percentage of their estimated total population, which isn't very large.

They're protected, like all (AFAIK) native species - they've been regarded as rural pests because of their very extensive digging lifestyle, and were often exterminated by farmers, as much as they could. A fence won't keep a wombat out! They're nocturnal largely, and can exist with incredibly little water. I'd heard about the cubic faeces - the incredibly long colon means that a maximum of water is reabsorbed into the bloodstream, but had never heard anything else in any detail, even here, so thank you for posting this, Sutz!

I'm amazed it hasn't appeared in the media here yet, AFAIK, but it could have, for all I know. Quirky things like this are always well received, especially if local.

Speaking of wombats as a tragic roadkill, they are a real menace driving at night in rural areas, if they are crossing a road, especially if you don't have good headlights and/or are driving too fast. They are very slow, very heavy, and just the wrong height to make a car risk a roll over, especially at high speed. I know of at least one fatal accident with wankers driving at 120mph/200kph who hit a wombat at night on an open rural highway (which is mostly only one lane each way here).

I don't like driving at night in rural areas - kangaroos aren't fun to hit, either. I've never had any encounters though, or with wombats.

Anyway, I suspect a wombat could maybe dig more than most animals, apart from aardvarks. Both very interesting animals.

As they all are.

We have seasonal Opossums runs here, certain times of year I assume mating season there are lots of roadkills of Opossums.