He must be fun at parties. ;-)
> The marsupial then stacks the cubes - the higher the better so as to communicate with and attract other wombats.
If I was a comedian who specialized in toilet humor (and let's face it - I totally would), I would either quit my job because of this sentence, or (if I was good at it), I would turn it into my next standup routine. I probably could just read the article verbatim and get a few laughs, assuming the audience was not openly hostile.
Just to be clear, I think this is very interesting, and absolutely a valid area of research. But it is rather funny as well.
EDIT: Now I wonder - what do wombats try to communicate by stacking poop? This seems like a very existentialist thing to do.
There are so many urine tests I can't count them. But how many over-the-counter poop tests are there? Maybe one. Because, you know, its disgusting.
During my Zivildienst (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zivildienst), I had lots of contact with all kinds of things leaving the human digestive tract. You get used to it surprisingly quickly, as long as you have and endless supply of rubber gloves and disinfectant. OTOH, the revulsion feces inspire in most humans serves a purpose, evolution-wise, so finding a middle ground would be rather difficult.
According to Wikipedia, it's to mark the territory.
I know there's pressure for everyone to argue that their research has practical applications, and this one's probably a long shot, but it would be so cool and hilarious if this ends up being useful.
Q: How do you refuel the solid rocket boosters on Mars? A: Well first, let me tell you something interesting about wombats...
Instead I was hoping this article would shed light on why in (vulgar) slang we say "sh... bricks". The opportunity for a bad pun here was lost by the author, the researchers, and everyone commenting on twitter so far.
No-context quote of the year?
Strangely, I'm pretty sure I've read or heard before that wombats have triangular sphincters, and that determines the shitshape.
Also:
> The marsupial then stacks the cubes - the higher the better
Now that must be quite a cartoonish performance.
(Judging by YouTube's search suggestion, I'm not the only one to take interest in seeing this acrobatic act—however the search results are disappointing.)
1. https://www.curiositydaily.com/why-do-wombats-poop-cubes/
No but in all seriousness, it's truly fascinating how nature created it and what we might be able to learn from it. Wombat poop always makes for an interesting topic.
[0] https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/01/its-the-wombats-stra...
Google: donald duck square eggs
