Australian marsupials communicate through ... feces

The lonely marsupial mammal that lives in Australia's wild forest often visits outdoor toilets and leaves its "waste" when it comes to communicating with other children.

Researcher Monica Ruibal at the Australian National University said the quoll-named animal increased its waste during the breeding season, proving that its droppings play a role in reproduction.

Quoll is a lonely carnivorous animal of the size of a domestic cat. Since they do not gather in groups, there is a need to divide the territory and communicate during the breeding season. Ruibal's research shows that they do it by leaving feces at prominent locations.

In the case of spotted tail quolls living in Kosciuszko National Park, they leave their mark on the rocky hills along the tributaries with large stone terraces.

In his one-year study, Ruibal traveled to more than 100 "dumps" each year, collecting waste and analyzing DNA.

During the quoll breeding season, from March to June, Ruibal found that the number of feces on the river's rock shelf increased significantly, while the number of feces on the rocky areas decreased. This shows that the stone shelf is their main exchange place. But Ruibal is still not sure whether the stone shelf is the mating place of quoll.

Ruibal argues that the results also show that the scent left in the landfill plays an important role in reproduction."Maybe the animals want to say, 'I'm here and I'm ready to pair'."

MT (according to ABC Online)