Fecal matter

Feces or faeces (British and Latin) are the solid or semisolid metabolic waste from an animal's digestive tract, discharged through the anus or cloaca during a process called defecation. Urine and feces together are called excreta.

Collected feces has various uses, namely as fertilizer or soil conditioner in agriculture, as a fuel source, or for medicinal purposes (fecal transplants or fecal bacteriotherapy, in the case of human feces).

After an animal has digested eaten material, the remains of that material are discharged from its body as waste. Although it is lower in energy than the food from which it is derived, feces may retain a large amount of energy, often 50% of that of the original food. This means that of all food eaten, a significant amount of energy remains for the decomposers of ecosystems. Many organisms feed on feces, from bacteria to fungi to insects such as dung beetles, who can sense odors from long distances. Some may specialize in feces, while others may eat other foods as well. Feces serve not only as a basic food, but also as a supplement to the usual diet of some animals. This is known as coprophagia, and occurs in various animal species such as young elephants eating the feces of their mothers in order to gain essential gut flora, or by other animals such as dogs, rabbits, and monkeys.

Feces and urine, which reflect ultraviolet light, are important to raptors such as kestrels, who can see the near ultraviolet and thus find their prey by their middens and territorial markers.

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