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02.03 – Stools as Tools

The Single Acorn
The Single Acorn
02.03 - Stools as Tools
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Episode description:

What goes in must come out. And apparently what goes out can also come in again. That’s right. Poop. The forbidden snack. It’s gross enough to think about poop on its own, but there’s a certain unmatched biological revulsion that bubbles up when I think about eating poop. Or not that I think about eating poop, but when I do research on other animals that eat poop. As I’m chewing on these words, trying to figure out a way to frame this delicately, my dog’s looking up at me in utter confusion. We share a lot in common - a love for adventure, a passion for splashing in puddles, . But we just can’t share that same predilection for caprophagy. We’ll Boots, my poop-eating pooch, this one’s for you. This is the Single Acorn Podscat.

Produced by: Crow’s Path
Hosted by:
Professor Eweagey (aka Teage O’Connor), Glenn Etter, Dr. Christine Fleener
Supported by: Our patrons @ patreon.com/CrowsPath
For more natural history:

Theme music by: Jake Weiss
Logo design by: Caitlin LaDulce
Ads by: Sara Siegel

WORKS CITED
  • Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (full quote: “The minute a politician or a Pope starts his blather Uncle Pa thinks of him wiping his arse. Hitler and Roosevelt and Churchill all wipe their arsers. DeValera, too.”)
  • Changing Education Paradigms lecture about divergent thinking by Sir Ken Robinson (video)
  • I got a $180 bird-poop facial (source)
  • More on “uguiso no fun” – Is the Bird Poop Facial the Key to Brighter, Better Skin? (source)
  • Wu Ling Zhi (Flying Squirrel Feces) in Chinese medicine (source)
  • The Art of Poop: making art from butterfly poop, or meconium (source)
  • I couldn’t find any research indicating that birds poop intentionally on other birds. Sorry, Glenn.
  • Medicine Quest by Mark Plotkin (source)
  • A spider that looks and smells like bird droppings (source)
  • Absurd Creature of the Week: This Beetle Uses Its Poop as a Shield or Sword, includes images of tortoise beetles (source)
  • Pitcher plant doubles as toilet (source, video)
  • Whale-Poop Find May Fetch Man $180,000 – story on ambergris (source)
  • A College Runner Spends the Night Hiding in a Tree to Escape a Charging Bear (source)
  • Thermoregulation in Turkey Vultures: Vascular Anatomy, Arteriovenous Heat Exchange, and Behavior (source)
  • Poop, There It Is: The heat from Gentoo Penguin guano may melt snow and ice cover enough to give the birds early access to nesting sites (source)
  • Watermelon Snow: Not Edible but Important for Climate Change (source)
  • Blue-footed boobies with babies in the Galapagos (source)

More from Season 02 – Theses on Feces

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