Are there any wild animals that actively have a ‘toilet area’ where they void their wastes, or do all wild animals just let it rip wherever they happen to be when the urge overcomes them?
I know nothing about wolves, for example, but wouldn’t be surprised to find that they do not defecate in their dens. If so, do they go any old place outside of the den, or do they tend to return to a designated ‘toilet area’?
I’ve seen domestic dogs that appear to prefer a certain region to void in (for instance, the back corner of their yard) and I’ve seen domesticated horses go wherever. Birds are obvious, as their designated toilet areas are clearly located around freshly washed cars!
I’m curious about wild/non-domesticated animals and whether or not they tend to use an area of their surroundings as a toilet. Also whether or not it falls along certain lines, such as ruminants = go anywhere, carnivores = have their own bidets I suppose this query wouldn’t include aquatic animals, so what about terrestrial mammals? Insects? Has anyone studied this ?!?
I was just at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum yesterday and one of the odd little facts we learned is that javalina (peccary) do all their business in one spot for the whole herd. They also lack gall bladders, one of the physical features that separate them from true pigs.
This depends on the horse. Being raised on a horse breeding & training farm, I’ve seen a lot of them.
We had one stallion who was very neat in his stall – only defecated in 1 corner, and urinated in the center over the drain.
Another old mare was also real neat; always going in the back corner of her stall. And she passed this on – her foals (especially fillies) kept their stalls neat & clean. I guess she taught it to them by her example. Another mare (her full sister) could completely mess up a clean stall in a matter of hours!
Horses can indeed be ‘toilet-trained’; many used in circuses, stage plays, & movies are so trained. But most horseowners just don’t find it worthwhile to spend time training their horses on this.
Well, author John Woodmarappe in his Creationist book Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study wrote that Noah and Sons could have trained the ark’s creatures in order to lessen the formidable task of getting all that waste overboard.
Some domestic animals won’t empty out in their living areas. Others, like cows will go in the milk pail if you don’t get out of the way. I’ve never heard of a chicken or a sea gull losing any sleep over where they shit.
I don’t know of any animal that never shits in the wood, so to speak. I don’t think that’s possible and even humans will shit in the woods if the need takes them. But there’s a difference between shitting in the woods when nature calls and just letting ‘em drop any old where.
Many, probably most, of the odd toed ungulates have specific defecation points for one or both genders. Wild stallions will crap anywhere but if they are near a regular drop off point they will hold things until they can reach that point. It’s a kind of boundary marker system. Rhinos, tapirs etc. all do the same thing.
As you noted many animals that have dens will avoid crapping in the den in an effort to reduce smell that will attract predators. However for wolves and similar animals dens are only a breeding site. The rest of the time they sleep wherever is comfortable. Many animals go to extremes to avoid these problems of faeces in the nest including only defecating when the mother is grooming them so that the fecal material can be eaten immediately. It’s a form of instinctive toilet training that becomes useless once the animal becomes mobile.
For animals like rabbits with permanent burrows there is less concern about letting it fall inside because all the local predators know where the warren is. Even there though rabbits have some funny defecation habits and produce different types of faeces inside the burrow compared to what the produce outside.
I suppose this query wouldn’t include aquatic animals, so what about terrestrial mammals? Insects? Has anyone studied this ?!?