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

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

animals habitually

defecate Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion and is the necessary biological process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid waste material known as feces (or faeces) from the digestive tract via the anus or cloaca. The act ...

and

urinate Urination is the release of urine from the bladder through the urethra in placental mammals, or through the cloaca in other vertebrates. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, ure ...

. 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. 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 manure, dung that mammals periodically return to and build up. They are used as a form of territorial marker. A range of animals a ...

, created by many

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s, such as

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole" * Golden mole, southern African mammals * Marsupial mole Marsupial moles, the Notoryctidae family, are two species of highly specialized marsupial mammals that are found i ...

s or

hyrax Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, stout, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the family Procaviidae within the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Modern hyraxes are typically between in length a ...

es, is also called a

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

Animals with dedicated defecation sites

Animals with communal latrines include

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

Eurasian badger The European badger (''Meles meles''), also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the Family (biology), family Mustelidae native to Europe and West Asia and parts of Central Asia. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red L ...

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

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 mi ...

s, and (prehistorically)

dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivores that typically bore a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, t ...

s (a 240-million-year-old site was called 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 broad ...

'', 28 November 2013 Some

lizard Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...

s, such as yakka

skink Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...

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 ge ...

s use dedicated defecation sites.

European rabbit The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal and Andorra) and southwestern France. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Oryctolagus''. The European rab ...

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 conspecificity, conspecific competition (biology), competition (or, occasionally, against animals of other species) using agonistic behaviors or (less ...

s. Elaborate "dungpile rituals" are reported for adult

stallions A stallion is an adult 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, "cre ...

, 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 family Tetranychidae, 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 Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

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 Cephalophinae ...

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 Zi ...

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'' is a genus of nematode, roundworms that infect more than fifty animal species. Life cycle ''Baylisascaris'' eggs are passed in feces and become active within a month. They can remain viable in the environment for years, withs ...

''. 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 ...

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

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

climate research Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; 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. Climate concerns the atmospheric ...

, 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 ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

are animal latrine associates. For example, '' Hebeloma radicosum'' is an ammonia fungus which associates with latrines of moles, wood mice, 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 dif ...

s. There is a curious association of ''

Cucumis humifructus ''Cucumis humifructus'', the aardvark cucumber or aardvark pumpkin, is a kind of cucumber (family Cucurbitaceae) from southern and tropical Africa which fruits underground. It is a prostrate vine up to in length. It is reliant on the aardvark ( ...

'' ("aardvark cucumber" or "aardvark pumpkin") with latrines of

aardvark Aardvarks ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') are medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammals native to Africa. Aardvarks are the only living species of the family Orycteropodidae and the order Tubulidentata. They have a long proboscis, similar to a pi ...

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 a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

s and

dung beetle Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. All species of dung beetle belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scara ...

s) feed on animal

excrement Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) 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 ...

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 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 ...