A zoo in Japan is featuring a very unusual and smelly exhibition that involves a lot of animal dung. In any environment involving nature, people are usually wary of animal excrement, hoping not to step in any of it.
However, a zoo in Japan hopes to make animal dung an attraction highlight instead of something that ought to be avoided. Yamaguchi Prefecture’s Tokuyama Zoo is holding an exhibit that not only lets visitors touch animal dung, but smell them as well.
The animal fecal matter ranges from strong pungent-smelling tiger dung to less-offensive-smelling squirrel feces. There will even be excrement that are considered to have “pleasant” smells such as the ones from Japan’s own red pandas.
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As a matter of fact, visitors can take a whiff out of 13 different specimens. There’s a wealth of variety in their animal dung samples ranging from exotic animals such as zebras to more rare ones like African tortoises.
In addition, the Japanese zoo has even come up with its own odor ranking system which categorizes dung smell from a range of 1, being the least offensive, to 5 being the smelliest. If that’s not enough to give guests indigestion, there’s also an exhibit where they can touch elephant feces.
For those who are worried about getting any diseases from the dung displays, the Japanese zoo assured visitors that it’s safe. The dried fecal matter are disinfected and even coated with varnish to ensure that the displays can be safely touched.
Although the zoo is known for previously holding strange exhibits such as a cockroach-oriented event, this is their first ever dung exhibit, according to SoraNews24. Tokuyama Zoo is opening its Unkoten exhibit starting on July 22 all the way to August 31.
Needless to say, this is one exhibit that visitors can find as either highly intriguing or very repulsive. After all, there are not many zoos in the world that offer animal dung as a main attraction.
