What's the worst animal-related smell you've ever experienced at work?

What does it smell like compared to other animal's poop? Just stronger, or is there something unique about it?

 

Normally, yes. But seven strong, they smelled like death.

 

Hard to explain but the smell overpowers all other primate poop. Smells sort of like rotting fruit.

 

Actually, binturongs do smell like buttered popcorn (which is probably the reason I like binturongs).

 

Normally they do!

 

Ah interesting, I wonder what the reason for that is

 

Probably their diet. They have very specific nutritional needs so a majority of their diet is Mazuri diet that comes in a can. The other primates get more whole produce.

 

Ah ok. I've also heard from some keepers that otter poop can be horrid! Anyone have experience with that, or seals and sea lions?

 

Almost anything with a largely or exclusively fish diet will produce poop that is high on the obnoxious scale to human noses, including sea- shore- and wading birds.

 

At the time I worked at Walsrode, several of the keepers collected privatly bird-eggs but of course only infirtile eggs ( and onces which didn't hatch ) and with allowness of the park-leader. I also had a small collection of eggs and one day - by cleaning the penguin-enclosure - we discovered some old penguin-eggs in several of the old nests. Because I didn't had penguin-eggs in my collection untill then, I decided to blow the eggs empty.
Carefully a small hole was made at the top of the first egg and then.... the egg exploded ! Believe me, this is one of the worst smells you can imagenate !
After getting some fresh air I later tried to blow out the other eggs and luckily these didn't explode and I had one more egg-species in my collection .

 

Can you actually smell the fish in the poop? Or what does it smell like that's so bad?

 

Oh wow! How does that smell compare to say, rotten chicken eggs? Is it a lot worse?

 

Yes it smells like VERY rotten egg with a little bit of extra smell of VERY rotten fish !

 

Done a big cat experience last year and a Tiger pissed on me. went on my jeans and it stank all day, when got home, washed them twice and could still smell it so binned them.

It smelt like something was dead.

 

I've worked with NAROs and ASCOs. Otter poop definitely stinks and it has a not-so-appealing texture (really slimy and liquid-y). It usually seems to be a contender for "worst poop" but I honestly don't even mind it that much.

 

Oh wow! So even the eggs of penguins smell fishy? I wonder why that is, with them being birds?

 

Yikes! So it didn't have a traditional "cat urine" smell to it at all, it was a completely different smell? Bad enough that you gagged or anything, or not quite that awful?

 

Ah, so more the texture than the smell?

 

Hard to describe since it's been a while, but it's close to nauseating, and it goes for those that eat shellfish or other marine invertebrates. I used to work tending an aviary that included a Roseate Spoonbill that took a dislike to me. It used to hop around overhead while I was in aviary, trying to poop-bomb me. The one day it hit me, between the corrosiveness of what it dumped on me and the smell that just couldn't be washed out, I had to throw the shirt out.

 

Haha wow, that's impressive! Bad enough it made you gag even, or not quite that severe? Is it mostly those birds you worked with then as far as animals in this category go, or did you also work with sea lions or something like that at some point?

Would you say that was the worst animal-related smell you've experienced, of have any been worse?