Scientists drill ‘poop core’ revealing 4,000 years of bat diet and environment

An undisturbed pile of ancient guano provides a unique medium for examining natural history, writes Harry Cockburn

Study is the first time scientists have examined ancient bat guano in this way (Getty )

You may have heard of scientists studying ice cores and sediment cores as a means of learning more about our planet’s natural history, but a team of Canadian and US scientists are probing something altogether more icky: a deep pile of ancient bat guano.

Describing it as a “treasure trove of bat poop”, the scientists are examining the hillock of waste which has been found deep in a Jamaican cave where it has remained relatively undisturbed and has been slowly growing for thousands of years.

The guano has been deposited in sequential layers by generations of at least five species over a period of around 4,300 years, and is around two metres deep.