Meet the Animal That Poops Cubes

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Written by Jennifer Geer

Published: January 20, 2025

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Are Marsupials Mammals
Sander Groffen/Shutterstock.com

The bare-nosed or common wombat is a marsupial closely related to koalas. Wombats have a stocky build with short, stubby legs and coarse tan, grey, or brown fur. They are the second-largest marsupial after the red kangaroo, but what is really unusual about the wombat is the shape of its poop.

Wombats had long baffled scientists as the only animal in the world with cube-shaped poop, even though their intestines are the same shape as other mammals, including humans. How a square comes out of a round tube was a mystery. But a determined group of scientists persevered and found the answers. The video above explains how scientists figured out how the cubes form in the wombat’s intestine and how wombats benefit from their uniquely shaped scats.

Wombats are the only animal in the world with cube-shaped poop.

Where Do Wombats Live?

Wombats are herbivores that live in southeast Australia where they make their burrows in a variety of habitats including shrublands, coastal areas, woodlands, and mountain forests. They spend much of their day grazing on grass, roots, and other plants.

Most wombats live alone unless it’s a mother with her babies. Common wombats tend to be a solitary species. However, they sometimes form family groups and may live up to 10 in a burrow. Their burrows are complex underground structures. They include sleeping chambers, interconnected tunnels, and many entrances and exits.

How Does a Wombat Poop a Cube?

While researchers knew that wombats were the only animal to poop a cube, they didn’t understand how it happened until fairly recently. After all, wombat intestines are tube-shaped, not square, so how does square poop come out? In 2018, a team of scientists from Georgia Tech discovered that wombat’s intestines contain both thicker and thinner muscles in the intestinal walls. In 2021, another group of researchers expanded on that research to fully understand the process.

What they learned is that the thin bands in the wombat’s intestines are stretchier than the thick bands. The thick bands and the thin bands contract together at different speeds. This sends the feces through the intestines as the wombat’s body takes the water and nutrients it needs. Wombat intestines are about 10 times the length of their body and the digestive process is slow. At the end of the process, the wombat poop is fairly dry and has as many nutrients extracted as possible.

The video explains how the thin and thick bands create a square shape in an easy way to envision by using a rubber band. Pinch the two opposite sides and you form a square. The wombat’s intestines work this way. As the waste moves through the colon and dries out, it begins to form a square, which results in cube-shaped wombat poop.

What’s the Advantage of Cube-Shaped Poop?

Once researchers knew how wombats were making cube-shaped poops, they wanted to know why. It turns out, there may be an advantage, but to understand this, we need to look at where wombats like to poop.

According to the video, some researchers have theorized that wombats use their scat as a form of communication. Wombats tend to poop in latrines, places where other wombats have also pooped. Wombats can poop four to eight pieces at a time and they do this many times a day. It doesn’t take too long for the latrines to start to fill up with wombat poop.

Because the poop is cube-shaped and dry, it stacks together well, making it easy for other wombats to stop by and get a whiff. With their excellent sense of smell, the wombats can tell if there is another wombat in the area looking for a mate, or if, on the contrary, someone is marking their territory.

Wombats also will place their scat around their burrows. Researchers think they may either be marking their territory or announcing they want to mate. Because the poop is square and stacks up on logs or rocks, it stays where the wombat left it and won’t roll away.

Do All Wombats Have Square Poop?

There are three species of wombats: the common wombat, the Northern hairy-nosed, and the Southern hairy-nosed. It’s only the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) that will poop squares. While the common wombat has a stable population, the Southern hairy-nosed wombat is near threatened. However, the Northern hairy-nosed is critically endangered and is one of the most rare animals in the world.

How Can Square Wombat Poop Help Technology?

Creating a cube from a soft cylinder tube is an innovative technique that humans had never thought of before. Scientists believe that by imitating the wombat’s intestinal tract, we may be able to come up with new ideas for our own digestive health, manufacturing, and clinical pathology. For example, learning how the wombat’s intestines work can help doctors detect colon cancer in people.


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About the Author

Jennifer Geer

Jennifer Geer is a writer at A-Z Animals where her primary focus is on animals, news topics, travel, and weather. Jennifer holds a Master's Degree from the University of Tulsa, and she has been researching and writing about news topics and animals for over four years. A resident of Illinois, Jennifer enjoys hiking, gardening, and caring for her three pugs.

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