Animal latrines (latrine areas, animal toilets, defecation sites) are places where

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

animals habitually

defecate Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion, and is a necessary process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid waste material known as feces from the digestive tract via the anus. The act has a variety of names ranging fro ...

and

urinate Urination, also known as micturition, is the release of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, uresis, ...

. Many kinds of animals are highly specific in this respect and have stereotyped routines, including approach and departure. Many of them have communal, ''i.e.'', shared, latrines.

Animals with dedicated defecation sites

Animals with communal latrines include

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

Eurasian badger The European badger (''Meles meles''), also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the family Mustelidae native to almost all of Europe. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List as it has a wide range and a large stabl ...

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...

s,"THE ROLE OF SMALL ANTELOPE IN ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING IN THE MATOBO HILLS, ZIMBABWE"

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

s, and

dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivorous animals with a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, typicall ...

s (a 240-million-year-old site is the "world's oldest public toilet")."Giant prehistoric toilet unearthed"
James Morgan, science reporter, ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

'', 28 November 2013 A regularly used toilet area or

dunghill Dung middens, also known as ''dung hills'',''The New Encyclopaedia of Mammals'' D MacDonald 2002 Oxford are piles of dung that mammals periodically return to and build up. They are used as a form of territorial marker. A range of animals are know ...

, created by many

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s, such as

hyrax Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Typically, they measure between long and weigh between . They are superficially simil ...

es or

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

s, is also called a

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

. Some

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s, such as yakka

skink Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. Ski ...

s ('' Egernia rugosa'') and

thorny devil The thorny devil (''Moloch horridus''), also known commonly as the mountain devil, thorny lizard, thorny dragon, and moloch, is a species of lizard in the family Agamidae. The species is endemic to Australia. It is the sole species in the ...

s use dedicated defecation sites.

European rabbit The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. It has ...

s may deposit their pellets both randomly over the range and at communal latrine sites.

Function and impact

Territoriality

Middens and other types of defecation sites may serve as

territorial marker In ethology, territory is the sociographical area that an animal consistently defends against conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against animals of other species) using agonistic behaviors or (less commonly) real physical aggression. ...

s. Elaborate "dungpile rituals" are reported for adult

stallions A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded (castrated). Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck ...

, and

bucks,George B. Schaller, "The Deer and the Tiger"
p. 164
/ref> which are thought to serve for confrontation avoidance. In contrast, female and young animals exhibit no such behavior.

Sanitation

Dedicated defecation sites are thought to be the result of sanitation-driven behavior. For example, the

spider mite Spider mites are members of the Tetranychidae family, which includes about 1,200 species. They are part of the subclass Acari (mites). Spider mites generally live on the undersides of leaves of plants, where they may spin protective silk webs, a ...

'' Stigmaeopsis miscanthi'' constructs woven nests, and nest members defecate at only one site inside the nest. Dedicated latrine areas observed by free-roaming horses mean that grazing area is kept parasite-free. Even stabled horses seem to have vestiges of such behavior. Herbivoral

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

is at risk of parasite/pathogen exposure from feces during grazing, therefore there is an interest in research of livestock behavior in the presence of feces both of their own species, and others, including wildlife, including the dependence on defecation patterns.

Ecological impact

Latrines of herbivores, such as antelopes, play an important role in ecology by providing enrichment of certain areas in nutrients. It is described that

duiker A duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to sub-Saharan Africa, found in heavily wooded areas. The 22 extant species, including three sometimes considered to be subspecies of the other species, form the subfamily Cephalophina ...

and

steenbok The steenbok (''Raphicerus campestris'') is a common small antelope of southern and eastern Africa. It is sometimes known as the steinbuck or steinbok. Description Steenbok resemble small oribi, standing 45–60 cm (16"–24") at the ...

antelopes tended to defecate in exposed sites, generally on very sandy soil, while

klipspringer The klipspringer (; ''Oreotragus oreotragus'') is a small antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of its genus and subfamily/tribe, the klipspringer was first described by German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimm ...

preferred rocky outcrops, thus enriching the nutrient-deficient areas, as well as depositing plant seed there.

Raccoon latrines

A common nuisance of

s is raccoon latrines (raccoon toilets), which may contain eggs of the roundworm ''

Baylisascaris procyonis ''Baylisascaris procyonis'', also known by the common name of raccoon roundworm, is a roundworm nematode, found ubiquitously in raccoons, the definitive hosts. It is named after H. A. Baylis, who studied them in the 1920s–30s, and Greek ''aska ...

''. Nuisance raccoon latrines may be found in attics, on flat roofs, on logs, in yards and sandboxes, etc.

Use in research

In addition to immediate research of animal behavior and biology, animal toilets and

coprolite A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...

s are an instrument of research for not directly related purposes in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

climate research Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...

, and other areas. They provide various information: plant habitats, historical information about prehistoric life and climate, etc.

Animal latrine associates

Some

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

are animal latrine associates. For example, ''

Hebeloma radicosum ''Hebeloma radicosum'', commonly known as the rooting poison pie, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Hymenogastraceae. Fruit bodies (mushrooms) can be identified by the tapering root-like stipe base, as well as the almond-like odor. Fou ...

'' is an ammonia fungus which associates with latrines of moles,

wood mice The wood mouse (''Apodemus sylvaticus'') is a murid rodent native to Europe and northwestern Africa. It is closely related to the yellow-necked mouse (''Apodemus flavicollis'') but differs in that it has no band of yellow fur around the neck, ha ...

, and

shrew Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to different fa ...

s. There is a curious association of '' Cucumis humifructus'' ("aardvark cucumber" or "aardvark pumpkin") with latrines of

aardvark The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike ...

s. ''C. humifructus'' produces its fruit underground, the aardvark burrows for them, and then deposits its seeds in dunghills near its habitat. The distribution of ''C. humifructus'' tends to match that of aardvark latrines. Some insects (e.g.,

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

s and

dung beetle Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. Some species of dung beetles can bury dung 250 times their own mass in one night. Many dung beetles, known as ''rollers'', roll dung into round balls, which are used as a food source or breeding cha ...

s) feed on animal

excrement Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...

and hence are natural associates of dung sites.

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em, refs= {{cite journal , vauthors=Sagara N, Senn-Irlet B, Marstad P , title=Establishment of the case of ''Hebeloma radicosum'' growth on the latrine of the wood mouse , journal=Mycoscience , year=2006 , volume=47 , issue=5 , pages=263–8 , doi=10.1007/s10267-006-0303-y, s2cid=85310185 {{cite journal , vauthors=Sagara N, Ooyama J, Koyama M , title=New causal animal for the growth of ''Hebeloma radicosum'' (Agaricales): shrew, ''Sorex'' sp (Mammalia, Insectivora) , journal=Mycoscience , year=2008 , volume=49 , issue=3 , pages=207–10 , doi=10.1007/s10267-008-0407-7 , s2cid=83999856 Animal waste products Defecation Ethology

Latrine A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground (pit latrine), or m ...