ALTHOUGH Having a spherical drain hole, bare-nose wombats do not produce round droppings. Wombat being the only animal in the world that produces cube-shaped feces.
As is well known, wombat is a species of marsupial native to Australia that lives in grassy plains and eucalyptus forests. Wombats are one of the most adorable animals in the world and have given rise to many mysteries that are difficult for animal experts to solve.
Also read: Getting to Know Wombats, Animals That Have Cube-shaped Stools
The mystery of the cube-shaped poop that wombats produce has been a mystery for a very long time to solve. The reason is, this cute animal has the unique ability to produce more than 100 unique cube-shaped lumps of dirt every day.
Now researchers say they have discovered how a wombat’s intestines can create such unusually shaped stools.
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology first began studying wombats’ ability to defecate in 2018. They analyzed the digestive tracts of wombats involved in car accidents.
Researchers also compared the intestines of these marsupials with pig intestines. This involves inserting a balloon into the animal’s digestive tract to see how it stretches to fit the balloon and finding areas of varying thickness and stiffness.
The scientists then created a 2D mathematical model to simulate how this area of the intestine contracts and expands with the rhythm of digestion over several days to form the stool into a cube shape.
Also read: Unique, This Animal Removes Cube Dirt and Has a “Protective Plate”
Using this method, the researchers found, the softer areas of the intestine squeezed slowly and formed the final corner of the cube. Interestingly, in most mammals, intestinal muscle contractions occur in all directions, but in wombats, the grooved tissue and irregular contractions form feces differently.
“Bare-nose wombats are known for producing their distinctive cuboidal droppings. This ability to form relatively uniform and clean feces is unique in the animal kingdom,” said Scott Carver, a wildlife ecologist from the University of Tasmania. Oddity Central, Saturday (5/6/2021).
