• Question: Why is it rare to find whale poo?

    Asked by ariana carolina herrera yunda on 25 Jan 2021.
    • Photo: Stephanie Henson

      Stephanie Henson answered on 25 Jan 2021:

      Because there aren’t huge numbers of whales and most of them live in remote parts of the ocean. They also sink pretty quickly so unless you’re “lucky” enough to be in the right place at the right time, they won’t be seen.

    • Photo: Sian Evans

      Sian Evans answered on 26 Jan 2021:

      Extremely rare! I was actually asked to try and find some for this year’s Christmas Lectures (strange job right?!) but we ended up having to make some fake poo instead… As Stephanie says it’s usually in remote parts of the ocean and gets recycled pretty quickly. Probably for the best since it’s very important for ocean nutrient cycles, we should probably leave it there!

    • Photo: Tony Butcher

      Tony Butcher answered on 28 Jan 2021:

      No idea, but it’s a great question!
      I have heard of ambergris, which is a fatty substance that builds up in the intestines of sperm whales, and is sometimes pooped out – it’s worth a lot of money for perfumes, apparently…nice!
      (There’s a series available on Channel 5 at the moment, ‘Natural History Museum: World of Wonder’, and in the last one I saw the whale expert was talking about it – well worth watching!)

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