Scientists Say: Dung

Poo, feces, poop, manure, crap. This is an animal’s number two

860-horse-poo-Badaia_-_Heces_de_caballo_02.gif

This is horse dung, the solid remains of a horse’s diet.

Basotxerri/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Dung (noun, “DUHng”)

This is animal poop. Poo. Feces. Manure. Dung is a word scientists use to refer to animal poop but not for human feces. It refers to the solid, or semi-solid (ew) remains of food that an animal can’t digest.

In a sentence

In Australia, sheep may spread a poisonous weed’s seeds in their dung.

Check out the full list of Scientists Say here

Follow Eureka! Lab on Twitter

Bethany Brookshire was a longtime staff writer at Science News Explores and is the author of the book Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. She has a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology and likes to write about neuroscience, biology, climate and more. She thinks Porgs are an invasive species.

More Stories from Science News Explores on Animals