“A muscular burrowing potato that poops in perfect cubes.”

The wombat is built like a small, furry tank and behaves accordingly. It digs vast burrow systems with claws like garden tools, and when a predator chases it underground, it blocks the tunnel with its rump — which is reinforced with extra-tough cartilage, essentially a built-in cork made of butt. But the wombat's true claim to fame is its poop: it produces neat, dry cubes, around a hundred a night, which it stacks on rocks and logs as territorial signposts. The cubes don't roll away, which is the entire point. Scientists won an Ig Nobel Prize figuring out that the cubes form thanks to varying stiffness inside the intestine. It is the only animal known to manufacture square waste, and it does so with quiet, geometric pride.

Scientific name

Vombatus ursinus

Size

Medium-dog sized, but denser (~25 kg).

Habitat

Forests and grasslands of southeastern Australia.

Diet

Grasses, roots, and bark.

Conservation

LC · Least Concern

Picnic threat level

Picnic threat: low, unless you're sitting on its burrow.

JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Learn more →