02/05/2026
Sometimes on here we share very important, need to know, information…. Like this one about farts! 😆
Wow your kids at the dinner table tonight! You’re welcome 😉
Let’er Rip: Let’s Learn about Farts! 💨
Happy International Fart Day! (Yes, there IS a day for everything)
Scientists and researchers take on huge challenges that humanity faces: climate change, fighting illness and disease, exploring the planet and our universe, and now… farts.
Yes, great scientific minds are studying which animals fart—and why. Seriously. They’ve even got a hashtag:
But why farts? Flatology (the study of farting) helps biologists, conservationists and even influences park designs. Just a few of the ways t***s help science: help estimate populations of hard-to-count species (by tracking methane and s**t), using digestive gas to reflect diet quality and changes, early detection of overgrazing, modeling climate changes for long-term ecosystem planning, and tracking wildlife health!
However, the first question must be: what is a fart? Scientists agreed to define it as “gas that comes out of the end opposite the mouth”. Simple, broad, easy to understand— nice.
Farts are (mainly) thanks to digestion. Gut microbes break down food, making gases, like CO2 or methane. Herbivores and omnivores get lots of gas from fibrous plant materials, but meat-eaters are stinky too (red meat contains sulfur among other things), and animals that eat fish have fish-scented floofs.
While many animals fart, birds don’t seem to need to (but in theory they could if they wanted), while ocean-dwelling invertebrates (like oysters, mussels and crabs) couldn’t fart if their shells depended on it. No shade, just a fact. Giraffe farts occur at the face height of an average man (shout out to The Calgary Zoo for dealing with that), and snow leopards have extra floofy bums that muzzle their butt sneezes.
Farts are also useful for self-defence, communication and even hunting:
Sonoran coral snakes suck air into their backsides and expel it with a popping noise to scare predators and zebras fart when startled (same, zebras, same).
Salamanders don’t have a strong enough sphincter muscle for proper pooting pressure, meaning gases probably just slip out of their bums continually. (Jury is still out on if that’s one long fart or just a neat party trick.)
Herring fish use farts to talk to each other, while manatees use their farts like gassy water wings to float on the surface. (Final Jeopardy: You can spot a constipated manatee easily; their tails stick out of the water because they can’t expel the gas.)
Lacewing larva farts have a chemical that stuns and then kills termites. In a doubly embarrassing maneuver, the farted-upon termite is then eaten.
And in the “John Wick” category of flatulence, millipede bums have rigid valves that seem to act as silencers. Plus, they make lots of methane in their intestines. Meaning their back-end blowouts are smelly, flammable, and inaudible, aka… silent but deadly.
But let's look at Calgary critters who totally make air biscuits:
🐱 Bobcats (scientists say squirrel-based farts are THE WORST)
🕸️🕷️ Spiders (assumed, but hard to verify… where’s Wilbur when you need to ask Charlotte an awkward question.)
🐻 Bears (no one gets close enough to provide details though)
🦇 Bats (they’ve got incredibly quick digestion— almost too quick to make the gas for a fart but they squeaked through)
🎺💨 Mustelids (weasels and such love a good trouser trumpet)
🦨 Skunks (double jeopardy for these stinky cats—farts and sprays!)
🐰 Rabbits (definitely dropping b***y bombs)
🐸 Frogs (quite stinky apparently)
Calgary Parks thinks learning about farts in the wild is a total gas, cause learning about nature (flatulence and all) is a great way to build a greater appreciation of our city’s natural environment—t***s and all. Being gassy is classy!
