I would like to know what animal produces the most fecal matter in terms of:
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Total volume per day (probably elephants?)
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Volume per day to body weight ratio
That’s all. Thanks.
I’d venture #1 would almost certainly be a whale. Quick googling says a blue whale excretes 3% of its ~180 ton body mass every day.
If we assume whale shit is 100% water, that’s roughly 5 cubic meters of shit - quite a lot.
Teaii Partyonis, aka the Tea Party Shrew. Consumes vast amounts of hyperbole and dogma as part of a red diet rich in irony. Produces a high volume of especially odorous effluent on a daily basis.
I’m guessing hummingbirds are up near the top.
I’m not sure it would count, but I’d look at sea cucumbers. Some of them scoop up sand, extract nutrients, and send it out the back. I have no idea how much per day, but if you’ve ever seen a video, it looks like it could be as much as, if not more, than their body weight. I think it’s more “processed sand” than “poop,” but it does come out their butts in a shape reminiscent of turdage.
I’m on that same diet.
I would like to give the humble shrew an honourable mention for #2.
I don’t suppose it said how they arrived at that number?
When we lived out in the suburbs, handlers would sometimes bring their elephants through the neighborhood, and all I know is if you ever run across across elephant boulders … er, I mean droppings, you know they ain’t come from little fluffy what lives next door.
Ahhh I see what you did there.
Humans. We give more than we tend to take.
Maybe among mammals, the panda for #2. Panda bears actually are bears and they have a digestive system much more adapted to omnivorous living than their actual diet that consists exclusively of bamboo shoots. Apparently they spend all their waking hours eating and pooping. They get about 4% of the food value out of their food.
I know you’re asking about adult animals, but I’d like to point out that baby animals of all types produce prodigious amounts of poop relative to body weight – they have to. They’re building body mass and the digestive system of most animals is woefully inefficient. I used to raise tadpoles, and i was constantly cleaning out the tank.
For that matter, I raised MilliCal, and any parent will tell you about the constant diaper-changing.
This guy asserts that geese excrete shit equal to 11-16% of their body weight daily. That’s dry weight (of shit), so it would be a much higher percentage of body weight if weighed “fresh.”
Parrotfish can make up to 90kg of sand per year, ok, it’s not fecal matter, or is it? Parrotfish - Wikipedia
Gives a new meaning to Mandy, it does.
[moderating]
Please keep political potshots out of GQ.
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Goose poo is mostly grasses, and they graze like fiends - at least when driven into settled areas by suburban development. A park with geese in residence can be a real mess.
Not all of Jacques Cousteau’s voyages were glamorous.
I really miss Animal Stories.
Remember “Sparky the Electric Bull?”
Ooooo, Sparky. It’s never been like this before…
(Sorry for the Lujack. I mean hijack.)