Paul Weston, Charles Sturt University dan Theo Evans, The University of Western Australia
Wet and bulky cattle dung is very unlike marsupial dung that Australian dung beetles are adapted to deal with, meaning native dung beetles tend to leave it alone. But help from abroad is at hand.
Female stable flies make careful choices about where to lay their eggs.
Cosmin Manci/Shutterstock
Savvy female stable flies prefer to lay their eggs on donkey and sheep dung. Knowing where they choose to do this will help us manage disease.
The composition of black and white in a magpie’s poo differs between species. Some splatter more of the uric acid (white), some have more black (indigestible solids). It depends on their diet.
Gisela Kaplan
Like reptiles, birds do not have two separate exits from the body. They have one, called the cloaca. It is quite similar to the human anus but the cloaca expels both indigestible bits and toxins.