Poo Museum Wows Britain With Breathtaking Exhibits
Everybody does it. Those you can’t possibly imagine doing it, also do it.
Nothing unites humankind the way this simple, primitive digestive climax does. Yet, a vast conspiracy of silence reigns over this most basic of human acts.
But not anymore, not anymore.
A poo museum has just opened up, and that, too, in a country famous for its stiff upper lip.
Yes, Britain is up and running with its first human and animal excrement museum, situated at the Isle of Wight Zoo and happily admitting curious poo gazers now, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
The museum has been given the most dignified name possible for such a delicate enterprise: The National Poo Museum.
Together with @IsleofWight_Zoo we're lifting the lid on a taboo subject! #IsleofWight. This Easter #PooAtTheZoo. pic.twitter.com/1VwrcnnLDP
— Eccleston George (@ecclestongeorge) March 16, 2016
The National Poo Museum has on display poo specimens from 20 different species. These include specimens from a human baby, cow, fox, lion, meerkat, pigeon, owl, among others.
There is even a fossil poo (coprolite) that is believed to be millions of years old!
Each poo specimen is lovingly encased in a transparent sphere, and not only that, these poo spheres can be illuminated too, just by pressing a button. This is nothing less than a state-of-the-art poo-watching experience.
Though skeptics are bound to ask, why watch poo in the first place?
The National Poo Museum has a solid dump of an answer for that (via their website).
“The National Poo Museum’s mission is to lift the lid on the secret world of poo – to examine our relationship with it and to change forever the way we think about this amazing substance. We also intend to rub people’s noses in important poo-related issues, from dog mess to the effects of diet on the microbiome, to lack of access to sanitation in developing countries.”
The National Poo Museum has been founded by Daniel Roberts, along with Nigel George and Dave Badman from the Eccleston George collective of artists and social entrepreneurs.
Daniel Roberts, an “inventor and imagineer,” is a man who seems to be dreaming in a completely different plane than others and could possibly be hailed as a “poo visionary” in times to come (on the museum’s Facebook page, one photograph has him captioned as “The Man Who Dreamed Of Poo”).
https://www.facebook.com/221359568218781/photos/a.221366504884754.1073741827.221359568218781/228749054146499/?type=3&permPage=1
The idea for a poo museum came to Roberts a few years back as he was out walking with friends in the lap of nature. A small, trivial incident during that walk sparked off the whole thing, he told Crinkling News in an interview.
“We spotted loads of signs of wildlife – footprints, reindeer antlers. But I noticed that everyone was nearly hypnotised when we came across a poo in the middle of the path. I think it was from a lynx [a wild cat].”
That lynx poo and people’s inexplicable fascination for it may have been an epiphanic moment for Roberts. He realized where his heart truly lay. It set him off on a journey that would one day lead him to becoming “The Man Who Dreamed Of Poo,” a man who never tired of observing poo in all its infinite manifestations.
“It’s everywhere. Look round outside and it won’t be many seconds before you spot some sort of poo – and [they’re] just the obvious ones. There are invisible traces of poo on most surfaces indoors and, of course, our guts are full of the stuff.”
For those of our readers who won’t be able to make it to the poo museum for geographical reasons, here’s some serious eye candy as a consolation.
Human Baby Poo
Lion Poo
Meerkat Poo
Fossil Poo
Poo Dryer
Poo needs to be desiccated (its moisture has to be removed) before it is packed up in a sphere. The poo dryer helps in doing that. In this picture we see a “poo technician” holding up lion poo that is ready to go through the motions.
After the poo is desiccated, it is time to “encapsulate” it in resin spheres. Here are some finished poo spheres laid out on a table (the big one is lion poo).
Poo Cane
Throwing a bit of magic into his already-surreal enterprise, Roberts has got for himself a special poo cane. The poo cane has a tiny poo sphere on top, containing the usual suspect.
[Image via National Poo Museum]
