Scat: The Incredible Science of Wildlife Poop

Books for a Better Earth

by Anita Sanchez

Discover how poop can actually help protect our planet in this nonfiction book on the nutrient cycle and scientific problem solving.

What could be more revolting, useless, and downright disgusting than poop? But in nature’s endless and complex cycles, there’s no such thing as waste. The poop of wild animals is full of surprising it can be food, shelter, a way for creatures to communicate, and more. For scientists, scat can reveal clues about how animals are responding to climate change threats.

From researchers in India using tiger poop to track the endangered big cat to scientists in Mexico using bat guano to help replant a forest destroyed by fire, Scat shows how scientists are getting creative when it comes to studying animals and protecting ecosystems from climate change.

Award-winning nonfiction author Anita Sanchez’s writing is clear, concise, and lightly punny, providing readers with an accessible introduction to the nutrient cycle and the world of animal poop that is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. Back matter includes a glossary, a photo guide to common animal scat, and more. 

A Books for a Better Earth™ Title

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Genres: Animals, Picture Books, Nature, Humor, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2025

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how this book takes the poop-is-amusing element and elevates it with solid science and environmental undertones. However, at times, the potty humor and the dire environmental warnings felt a bit incongruous. Overall, though, I do recommend it for upper elementary readers looking for an animal poo book with a little more heft to it compared to what’s out there for the younger kids. The book is full of beautiful photos, and a glossary, bibliography and index. Also, thanks to this book, we felt inspired to look up a video of a blue whale pooing – it was not at all what I expected and was actually rather mesmerizing.

[Meghan Bohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come for the cover, stay for the science! Fantastic nonfiction. Highly recommended.

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photograph on this book’s cover, an embarrassed-looking warthog caught in the middle of a squat, along with the word SCAT emblazoned across the front should grab the attention of readers from 3rd grade and up through jr high. Even if browsers only flip through reading some of the many captions and side bars and glancing at the photos, they will learn a great deal about the importance of scat (wildlife poop), dung (big, moist plops of herbivores), frass (tiny grains of insect poo), and guano (the waste of flying birds/bats). The body of the text is broken down into sections detailing how the poop of different animals, including elephants, blue whales, & bears, benefit the environment and the food web in their habitats. There are unusual plants and creatures included throughout the book who handle scat in unusual ways, for instance the naked mole rat community that set aside one room as their communal toilet area and then periodically visit the room to roll around in the deposits so they will all smell alike and thus be recognizable as “family” by scent. Or how about the toilet pitcher plant that looks like a toilet with a lid and attracts rodents by secreting a sweet nectar that is licked then poop is deposited into the bowl which is absorbed/digested by this carnivore!

Fascinating facts about this not always stinky thing we call so many different names! With the large number of photographs, captions and interesting side bars/text bars that can stand alone plus 80 pages of more in-depth text, this book is appropriate for lovers of non-fiction and slightly gross content in grades 3-9. Glossary, bibliography, source notes for quotes, photo credits and extensive index included in back matter.

Thanks, Holiday House/Books For a Better Earth, for gifting this book to me during the 2025 Texas Library Association annual conference.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure to be a hit with the middle-grade group, this fascinating look at animal waste products takes a completely different approach to the topic than might be expected. The slightly wry chapter titles and clever writing, which is peppered with word play and vignettes that provide insight into the problem of poop, draws readers in almost immediately. Acknowledging that what goes in must come out and that most living things need to poop, the author takes readers on an interesting journey through the desert, in the ocean, and high in the sky with examples of how scat can actually be helpful in restoring forests or providing clues about the health of a species. The sad story of the end of the passenger pigeon and the consequence of human short-sightedness is eye-opening even while the author puts a positive spin on its end since it served as a wake-up call to environmentalists. While it's clear that there can be too much dung, it clearly has many uses that have often been ignored in the past. And even those loveliest of creatures--butterflies--need the moisture from scat to survive. With several colorful photographs, several of them showing animals in vulnerable positions, and a field guide to scat, the book won't remain on classroom library shelves for long. Part of the Books for a Better Earth series, this is one of those rare titles that actually offers solutions to problems while highlighting something that many might find disgusting. Readers who liked this one might want to check out the author's previous title, The Forest in the Sea.

[YSBR · Rating 4 out of 5]

The science of scat is explored in depth in this well-written book that is infused with a sense of humor. Readers of this book will come away from it understanding that wildlife poop is highly informative for scientists and helps both plants and animals. Animals can mark territory, avoid predators, or find their family thanks to scat. Plants rely on animals eating and defecating to spread their seeds far and wide. Entire ecosystems are created thanks to scat. Researchers use scat to count endangered species, identify individual animals, and measure an animal’s health. Zoos use scat to measure hormones to help properly care for animals.

Sidebars with other interesting information are scattered throughout the text with extra information (examples: why does pet poop smell bad, but wildlife scat does not?; fungi that thrive on wildlife droppings; etc). A final section of the book instructs readers on how to “read” the scat in their own neighborhood and learn what animals are in their area. Overall, this is an excellent resource about a fascinating topic. Includes a glossary, bibliography, source notes, photo credits, index. Link to complete review: https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/2...

[Martha Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anita Sanchez is so talented! This is a fun book about poop, but it is also a deep exploration of the science of ecosystems. Would you have expected to read this sentence? "No matter where you go around the globe, we're beginning to figure out that scat is an essential part of the healing of our planet." One of the cool stories: a completely burned, large forest area in an inaccessible mountainous area in Mexico is the focus of a team of scientists. How would you restore the forest with no access to seeds, no access to heavy equipment? Two bat scientists tie up ripe fruit from the local market on the dead branches of trees -- and viola! Within months the forest is regrowing! How did they do it? Bats!
(read the book to find out more!) Or why would hippos be critical to a fish in a river far downstream? Of course Sanchez covers the whale pump, but what about autocoprophagy? Is that a word that kids in 4th grade would hear regularly? This is top notch science with only a side of "eew - gross!" Wish we could give Anita Sanchez an award for this book! (But of course we have, for her previous books; she's a 2 time Blueberry Award winner!) Don't miss this.

[DebbieG · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kind of nonfiction - lots of information, full color photographs, and sprinkled throughout with humor! I have included part of the following review to help "sell" this title to all ages.
Kirkus Reviews (June 1, 2025)
In this icky and instructive book, poop preoccupation pulls readers into a world of science. Sanchez sings the splendors of scat: It helps disperse seeds, offers a method of coded communication, and is a source of fertilization and even nutrition. The importance of excrement-related research by biologists and others comes through in clear detail, while stories enliven the narrative.

[Hannah Kiker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up randomly and found myself so surprised at how educational this silly little book is. A great way to engage young readers in learning about the nutrition cycle— even I learned a lot! Made the author somebody I want to watch for wildlife reads

[Sharon Korzelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much about the importance of animal poop in this book!! Our planet depends on it! I especially enjoyed learning about whales and their pink poops. The author did an outstanding job of using all the polite synonyms for poop throughout this excellent book. Highly recommend.