Whos Poo KS2 - Jeans for Genes

Whose Poo?

KS2 Activity

Some animals can be hard to find even when they are living right under our noses! However, the things they leave behind can often provide useful clues for understanding what creatures are living in a particular habitat.

We are what we eat and the same goes for animals in the natural world! You can often find out what creatures are living in an area by hunting for traces of them – poo is one of those traces. The shape, consistency and smell of poo all give you clues to what animal has left its mark, as well as, what it has been eating and how it lives.

DNA sequencing technology has also started having an impact on this often smelly field. By analysing the DNA found in poo you can now discover more than ever before. It is fast becoming a core part of understanding what is happening in any given habitat.

This resource is made available from yourgenome.org managed the Wellcome Sanger Institute. It has been adapted for this website under Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0