Amazing animals – scat science

Let’s get a bit stinky with five fascinating fast facts about faeces, a deep dive into unusual animal poo, a question about why poo smells bad, some history of fossilised poo, and scat saving citizen science projects for you to try yourself.

Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda Sercombe. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.

https://www.creativescience.com.au

 

Episode content:

00:00 Introduction and fast facts

02:46 Unusual animal poo

05:04 Why does poo smell so bad?

06:08 Fossilised faeces - coprolites

08:06 Citizen science projects using animal scats

- Echidna CSI at the University of Adelaide in South Australia https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/echidna-csi

- Koala DNA at Griffith University in Queensland

https://www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-sciences/research/koala-dna

- Scoop a Poop at Macquarie University in New South Wales

https://www.scoopapoop.net/