Pooseum

31/05/2026

As so often, the clue was found in the poo. For a long time, it was unclear how long orangutans breastfeed their young. Scientists have now found the answer.

Researchers studying wild orangutans in Malaysian Borneo used a novel technique called faecal proteomics, which identifies proteins in faeces. Because breast milk contains several proteins that are unique to milk, finding these proteins in a juvenile orangutan's droppings provides direct evidence that it is still consuming its mother's milk.

Over a period of two years and seven months, the team collected faecal samples from known individuals. Milk-specific proteins were detected in every sample from juveniles younger than six and a half years of age, showing that orangutans continue to breastfeed for at least 6.5 years after birth. This is one of the longest breastfeeding periods known among mammals.

The researchers also found that juveniles consuming more milk tended to have higher levels of beneficial gut bacteria and proteins involved in immune defence. This prolonged period of breastfeeding likely contributes to the high survival rate of orangutan offspring, but it also helps explain why populations recover very slowly when numbers decline. With females producing offspring only at long intervals, protecting the remaining rainforest habitat is essential for the survival of this critically endangered species.

27/05/2026

Can you imagine having your gut running through your legs?

Sea spiders, which are marine arthropods related to spiders, horseshoe crabs, and scorpions, have a unique digestive system that branches into their legs because their tiny bodies cannot fit all their organs. The gut digests food and uses rhythmic contractions to help circulate nutrients and even oxygen through the long limbs.

The digestive system consists of a foregut inside the proboscis (straw-like mouthpart), a midgut with long branches (diverticula) extending to the tips of the legs (usually 8, but 10 or 12 in some species), and a hindgut ending in a tiny abdomen that has lost most of its original function through evolution.

The a**s, also known as the a**l tubercle, is located at the tip of the small abdominal structure. Young sea spiders can regenerate the a**l tubercle and rear digestive tract if these body parts are lost. If regeneration fails, some species survive by expelling digestive waste through the mouth instead.

Sea spiders feed on soft-bodied marine animals such as sea anemones, hydroids, and sponges, using their piercing, sucking proboscis to consume fluids and soft tissues.

The gut also plays an important role in respiration and circulation. Most sea spiders possess only a very small, weak heart that mainly supplies the central body region. They lack gills, and oxygen dissolved in seawater diffuses directly through the thin outer surface of their spindly legs and body into the haemolymph (the arthropod equivalent of blood). Rhythmic contractions of the gut then help move these oxygenated internal fluids through the legs and back towards the main body.

Most sea spiders are tiny, with bodies only a few millimetres long and leg spans of about 1–10 cm. However, some deep-sea and polar species are surprisingly large due to a phenomenon called deep-sea or polar gigantism. The largest known species have leg spans of up to 70 cm, although the body itself remains very small compared with the legs.

22/05/2026

Scientists have documented one of the most unusual behaviours ever observed among marine animals: remoras, also known as shark suckers or suckerfish, entering the cloacal openings of manta rays, multi-purpose openings used for defecation, urination, and reproduction. While remoras are best known for hitchhiking on sharks, whales, turtles, and rays using the flat suction disc on top of their heads, researchers recently recorded seven cases of “cloacal diving” behaviour in both juvenile and adult manta rays.

It remains unclear how this affects the rays, including whether it interferes with defecation or mating, or whether the remoras’ suction discs damage the inner lining of the cloaca. However, it is probably safe to assume that the experience is not particularly comfortable. In one observed case, a manta ray “shuddered” in response to the intrusion before swimming away with the remora still inside.

The researchers were unable to determine how long remoras remain inside the cloaca or how frequently this behaviour occurs, but they suggested that temporarily sheltering there may provide protection from predators and access to food sources such as parasites and faecal material.

Manta rays are known to temporarily protrude part of their lower intestine through the cloacal opening, a behaviour known as intestinal eversion. The protruding section can extend by as much as 30 cm and is thought to help remove parasites, mucus, and indigestible debris from the gut. However, this mechanism is unlikely to dislodge remoras because their powerful suction discs allow them to remain firmly attached.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.73548

16/05/2026

16/05/2026

Great hornbills are primarily frugivores, with about 70–80% of their diet consisting of fruit, particularly figs. However, they are also opportunistic omnivores and occasionally consume small mammals, reptiles, birds, eggs, and insects.

In this video, a male great hornbill regurgitates an egg, likely stolen from another animal’s nest, to feed the female or the chicks inside the nest cavity. Hornbills commonly use their crop, an expandable pouch in the oesophagus, for short-term food storage and to transport fruit and other food items.

13/05/2026

Drywood termites are wood-destroying insects that live entirely within dry timber, such as structural wood, furniture, or dead tree branches. These termites differ significantly from subterranean termites because they do not require contact with soil. Instead, they obtain the moisture they need directly from the timber they consume.

Drywood termites live in relatively small colonies. The most common tell-tale signs are small piles of hard faecal pellets, around 0.5–1 mm long and usually with six concave sides. “Kick holes” are tiny holes in the wood through which the termites eject their pellets. Drywood termites are difficult to control because their hidden colonies are often widely dispersed throughout timber structures.

Cryptotermes brevis (West Indian drywood termite), believed to have originated in Central and South America and the Caribbean, was detected in Australia in the 1940s. It is a particularly destructive species and is considered one of the world’s most damaging drywood termites.

08/05/2026

Unlike humans and other mammals, flies have no teeth to break down food. Instead, they use a process called extraoral digestion. When a fly lands on food, it regurgitates saliva and digestive enzymes onto the surface, breaking solid food down into a liquid “soup” that can be sucked up through its straw-like mouthpart, called a proboscis.

Much of this liquid is stored in a specialised sac called the crop, part of the fly’s foregut. The crop acts like a temporary storage tank, allowing the fly to hold water, nectar, or partially digested food before it moves into the midgut for full digestion. Enzymes in the regurgitated fluid begin breaking food down even before it reaches the stomach.

But this system also explains why flies are considered unhygienic. Because the crop stores food rather than digesting it completely, it can harbour bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens picked up from garbage, faeces, and decaying material. When flies regurgitate crop contents onto food, these microbes can be transferred as well.

Some fly species even use regurgitation for cooling. During hot weather, they perform a behaviour called “bubbling,” producing a droplet of liquid from the crop and holding it outside the mouthparts. As water evaporates, the droplet cools, and the fly then reabsorbs it, helping lower its body temperature.

02/05/2026

Beaver s**t resembles compressed wood shavings or sawdust when dried, reflecting their high-fibre, woody diet. The cylindrical or slightly oval pellets are commonly found in or near water around lodges (dome-shaped beaver homes) and dams, where beavers defecate.

Beavers engage in cecotrophy, a behaviour in which they re-ingest soft, nutrient-rich faecal pellets (cecotropes) directly from their a**s to maximise nutrient absorption. The harder, dry s**ts are not re-eaten.

28/04/2026

Ant larvae have neither eyes nor legs and rely on adult worker ants to provide a constant supply of food. Worker ants feed larvae through trophallaxis, sharing regurgitated liquid food, and in many species also provide processed solid food. The larvae grow rapidly, moulting between developmental stages as they feed.

Ant larvae generally do not defecate during this stage, which helps prevent waste from accumulating in nursery areas. Instead, they retain waste in their hindgut until they prepare for metamorphosis. Just before a larva transforms into a pupa, it expels its accumulated waste in a single pellet called meconium. In species that spin cocoons, the meconium is deposited inside the cocoon, where it remains isolated from the nest environment and helps maintain hygienic conditions. In species that do not spin cocoons, the meconium expelled at pupation is managed by worker ants through cleaning and waste removal, including transport to designated waste areas.