Just For Fun for Monday, September 30th, 2024

History

This case is for AVA24 general education and fun.

It has nothing to do with PICC lines, although the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary Veterinary staff have occasionally placed the equivalent of central catheters!

Cincinnati Childrens Vascular Access Team assists the Cincinnati Zoo occasionally and some years ago,  placed a life saving PICC equivalent in a premie hippopotamus 

Images (Click any image to enlarge)

Question

This animal does something unique in the Animal Kingdom. What is the name of the animal and what is the unique thing it does?

Your answer

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Correct answer

Its a Wombat - A ground dwelling, burrowing cousin of the koala. Wombats make cube shaped poop !
The baby Pouch opens backwards to protect the young from dirt while the mother is digging burrows, but some other marsupials like the platypus also do this

Discussion

How Wombats  create the cuboid poop was a mystery until recently.
The Wombat has a colon - rectum structure which has different compliance at different points around the rectum. This enables it to produce the cuboid poop which marks its territory on sloping hills where it usually digs its burrows.

See:   https://www.popsci.com/wombat-cubic-poop and other references below

Differential diagnosis

Koala - A tree dwelling cousin of the wombat - The Koala does little else but sit in trees, eat and sleep!  - The quintessential Australian

Additional images

References

• https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-wombats-poop-cubes
• https://www.popsci.com/wombat-cubic-poop
• https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2016/04/why-do-wombats-do-cube-shaped-poos/
• https://www.bonorong.com.au/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombat
• https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM82YQLfU/