Today we went to the Australian Museum in Sydney. The main reason for the visit was to join and get tickets for the Tyrannosaurs: Meet the family exhibit but, even with a very lazy Sunday morning, we had a bit of time to wander round some of the exhibits and so paid the Australian fauna section a visit. I’d already been back in February when I was over for my job interview but you always spot new and interesting things in a museum like this. Today’s interesting fact…
Unfortunately, the museum had little more information than that but thankfully the internet is more forthcoming on faecal facts. (The picture above is from (where else?) Wikipedia.) It appears that the function of the exciting excreta is to stop the stools from rolling away, as they are used for marking territory etc. The secret to the shaping of the poo is the moisture content, apparently. So there you go. My other interesting wombat fact is that their pouches open backwards relative to other marsupials, which stops them from filling up with dirt when burrowing.
You can find out more at a page at “Today I found out about”: Wombat Poop is Cubic and Other Fascinating Wombat Facts. It’s a sadly ad- and pop-up-riddled page but does end with the great “bonus fact”:
Wombats are protected under Australian law, presumably mostly due to being awesome.
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