Skip to contentNewsAnimalsPoop is on the menu for a surprising number of animalsA new tally finds dozens of species willing to give food a second go-round Perfectly normal animals at times eat poop. A baby koala (top left) starting its life of eating chemically defended leaves may pick up helpful gut microbes from moms droppings. Other vertebrates routinely glean left-behind nutrients from other species at sea (parrotfish, top right) or on land (pika, bottom left). The time crunch of early parenthood drives unusual snacking among Eurasian jays (bottom right) and other guardians minimizing departures from nests.From top left, clockwise: JeannetteKatzir/iStock/Getty Images Plus; Mike Goodwin/500px/Getty Images Plus; Federica Grassi/Moment/Getty Images Plus; George D. Lepp/Corbis Documentary/Getty Images PlusBy Susan Milius59 seconds agoFeces dont get enough credit as food.The stinky stuff is not just an end product after food gets eaten, digested and finally discarded by animal guts. Poop can also be something nutritious, useful and actually eaten (again) in its own right, three researchers point out in the December issue of Animal Behaviour. Tallying just the examples from vertebrates reported in scientific journals, the authors document coprophagy in more than 150 species, from adult black bears to baby koalas.