How (and Why) Wombats Poop In Cubes

Wombat himself, illustrated by Charles Santoso–just a snippet of the lovely, lovely art for this book

And…now we know. Check out CNN for more. The wombat’s intestine has two stiff sides and two flexible sides, and as muscular contractions force the, er, stuff through, it is shaped into a cube. Like a lot of other animals (anybody who walks a dog knows what I mean), wombats use poop to communicate, and leave little piles of their cube-shaped droppings in common spots to let other wombats know who’s around and what’s up.

No other animals poops in cubes–only wombats. Let’s hear it for the hero of Wombat Underground! There is no poop of any shape in this new picture book, which will be out next year, but (sigh) you just can’t fit everything fascinating and wonderful about wombats into 32 pages. There will be plenty of adventure and action and escaping of raging wildfires.