The Animal That Makes Cubes

One animal makes square poop. Send this to someone who thinks nature has no sense of humour. In Australia there is a low, heavy, furry animal called a wombat. It digs long tunnels, it eats grass all night, and it leaves behind small neat cubes.

Mnyama mmoja hutoa kinyesi cha mraba. Tuma hii kwa mtu anayefikiri asili haina ucheshi. Nchini Australia kuna mnyama mfupi, mzito, mwenye manyoya aitwaye wombat. Huchimba handaki ndefu, hula nyasi usiku kucha, na huacha nyuma vipande vidogo vya mraba vilivyo nadhifu.

For years nobody could explain it. Corners are difficult to make. In every other animal on the planet, soft things that leave a body come out round or long. So scientists looked closely inside a wombat and found the answer in the last stretch of its gut.

Kwa miaka mingi hakuna aliyeweza kueleza sababu. Pembe ni ngumu kutengeneza. Katika kila mnyama mwingine duniani, vitu laini vinavyotoka mwilini hutoka vikiwa duara au virefu. Hivyo wanasayansi walichunguza kwa makini ndani ya wombat na wakapata jibu katika sehemu ya mwisho ya utumbo wake.

That stretch is not the same all the way around. Some parts of the wall are stiff and squeeze hard and fast. Other parts are soft and simply stretch. The stiff parts press the corners in, again and again, until the shape sets and holds. The wombat then stacks the finished cubes on rocks and logs to tell other wombats whose ground this is. Round ones would roll straight off. Cubes stay exactly where they are put.

Sehemu hiyo si sawa kila mahali. Baadhi ya sehemu za ukuta ni ngumu na hubana kwa nguvu na haraka. Sehemu nyingine ni laini na hunyoosha tu. Sehemu ngumu hubana pembe ndani, tena na tena, hadi umbo linakaa imara. Wombat kisha huweka vipande vilivyomalizika juu ya mawe na magogo kuwaambia wombat wengine ardhi hii ni ya nani. Vipande vya duara vingeviringika mbali mara moja. Vipande vya mraba hubaki pale vilipowekwa.