Penguins pack a powerful poop.

 

So sayeth Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow and Jozef Gal, authors of the study "Pressures produced when penguins poop — calculations on avian defaecation" which found that a penguin evacuates his poop at a pressure that's up to four times higher than that of a human. Or as blogger SamW said "… no matter how hard you try to poop, a penguin can do it harder."

 

When a penguin feels the need to void its bowels, it will stand on the edge of its nest, bend forward slightly, lift its tail, and then shoot its poop up to 40 centimeters away. That might not sound like much, but considering that a penguin is around 60 centimeters tall, it's actually quite a far distance. It's the same as a 6-foot guy shooting his waste 4 feet.

 

OK, I admit it — the main reason I wrote this post was so I could use this delightful little image from the study:

 

 

 

Science is awesome.

 

Springlink via From C to Carnivore via Seed Magazine via my buddy Scott D.