Badger Poo. And Wombat Poo.

[Katie-Ellen]

What does it smell like? We want to get it right. We want to know.

This question came up in a recent Pop-Up with special guest publisher Nic Cheetham from Head of Zeus.

Sweet and musky, apparently, and they dig latrines.

More about badger poo and other wildlife poo HERE

Me?

I do pellets of course. Fragrant little Mousey-vole bones
All in the best possible taste.

 

[Leonora]

My dog rolls in badger poo over preference to everything else. It doesn't smell particularly shitty, but is the most unpleasant smell I know. When we see badger poo about the place, it looks like sweetcorn/smarties, full of multicolour little spheres. When rolled in, they resolve into brown mush.
Now I have to think about the smell. In my experience I wouldn't say sweet or musky, unless sickly-sweet and a musk entirely unappealing to humans.
In summer we have a colony of bats that invade our house. We like them, so often have half a dozen flying round the bedroom. They produce unbelievable amounts of droppings that look like mouse poo, but are apparently non hazardous. They only eat butterflies, moths and (yay) spiders, so the droppings are very powdery.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

That is really interesting. Thanks for sharing, @Leonora

Why dogs roll in poo Why does my dog love rolling in fox poo? | Safe and Hound

 

[Richard Wilkes]

Maybe my dogs have been rolling in badger poo all this time. I'd assumed it was fox poo. But whatever it is - it is a revolting smell (but not to a dog, obviously). We were told that dogs would grow out of it, but they are 9 and 6 and still it goes on - with the older one displaying a particular talent for finding the stuff and rolling long and hard in it. Maybe it smells better to them as they grow older? What's the human equivalent of rolling in the stuff? Aftershave/perfume? Maybe for dogs that is an unspeakable habit?

 

[Richard Turner]

I do volunteering in a deer park which also has lots of badgers. I know of several badger latrines where they dig a shallow scrape and crap in the same area as a number of other badgers. I've never got down & dirty though so don't know what they smell like.
Dogs rolling in fox poo and other nasty smelly things is all about territory marking, but I don't know the specific reason. Humans have a very poor sense of smell so don't use this method of territory marking, but we certainly fight over territory - a very big subject!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Yes . Maybe we do upset them with perfume, unless they accept is as a pack smell because you are their pack leader? Lots of humans don't like strong perfumes, I suppose it could likewise be felt as a kind of territorial intrusion.

Article suggests

Rolling in strong smelling substances is thought to be a behaviour handed down from their ancestors. There are different theories about why they do this:

It disguises their own scent, and smelling more like their environment they can get closer to their prey before being detected.

They can take back the scent to inform their pack of their find.

It is also possible that some dogs roll as it results in a response from their owners. Unfortunately, dogs don’t like it when they smell all flowery and clean, so try washing your dog in non perfumed products as using a perfumed shampoo might only intensify their need to mask the new fragrance.

 

[Leonora]

My dog is a very gentle female so I always think she is disguising herself rather than being territorial, in the same way she would never crap in the middle of a path but always off in the bushes.
Asked husband to describe badger poo smell. He says bad sewage.

 

[Geoff]

A friend of mine, who had a problem with foxes, read, and I have no idea where, that urinating around the border of your garden keeps foxes away. So, he followed the advice of the article and at night, when it was dark, he used to walk slowly round urinating, from his bodily source, as far as he could. He then repeated the process the following night, starting at the point he had finished. I am not sure what the neighbours must have thought and surprised he didn't get arrested. However, he swore it worked. I always politely declined his suggestion for summer evening drinks in the garden. I have to say he was somewhat eccentric.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Seems logical

So many things a writer may need to know.

Now, I didn't know this. Wombats do cube shaped poop, apparently, and this is thought to be the reason why

The wombat's distinctive cube-shaped faeces may be produced by alternating stiff and stretchy regions in the lower intestine.