A UGA professor is researching how wombats communicate through their feces.
Dr. Scott Carver of the Odum School of Ecology is investigating how wombats, a marsupial from Australia, communicate with each other.
Wombats are famous for their cube-shaped poops. Carver is now researching what function these poops serve.
Carver says that his research is important because it demonstrates the nuances of how animals communicate.
“How do you communicate with one another when you’re a relatively solitary animal? In their case, their sense of smell and their ability to detect individuals through the scents that are emitted by their scats is really important for the species.”
Carver says the results will help facilitate more detailed research in the future.
