Turns out the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens is storing nearly 30,000 samples of polar bear fecal matter, making it the largest collection of polar bear poop on the planet. And they’re not keeping the poop just for fun, Cincinnati’s WLWT reports, scientists with the Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife are studying the samples to help keep the species thriving.
Many female polar bears in captivity show signs of pregnancy when they’re not actually pregnant. So researchers are attempting to create a new pregnancy test by looking for differences between actual pregnant bears’ poop and non-pregnant bears’ poop.
In order to tell samples apart, many of these poop from around North America comes shipped with glittered and wild colors — making the job, just a little less crappy.
There are currently less than 25,000 polar bears in the wild, as their natural icy habitat continues to diminish near the North Pole.
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 5, 2019.