Penguin Poo Creates Laughing Gas

You'd think, dressing in tuxedos and acting like little gentlemen, penguins would know to hold in a fart. But turns out they are like most prepubescent men and they think farts are funny. Okay, most POST-pubescent men think farts are funny.

A recent study published in the journal of Science of the Total Environment, looks into the effects of the King Penguin population and it's effects on greenhouse gasses. The research was being done on a northern island of Antarctica. One unexpected find was that the penguin poop, aka "guano," creates very high levels of Nitrous Oxide, more commonly known as "laughing gas".

On their own, the penguin droppings are not enough to really impact Earth's overall energy or climate. The areas that the penguins do populate, do see a drastic increase in gas levels. So much so that it even impacted the field research. According to Bo Elberling, an author of the study, said that one researcher went "completely cuckoo," while "nosing about in guano for several hours."

The original intent of the study was to learn how soil reacted over time after glaciers moved off of it, and the impact of current wildlife in the area. The results were much funnier than they expected.

So now, you may ask yourself, "what can I eat to make more people laugh at my farts?" Well, according to Elberling, it's not necessarily JUST the droppings. The normal diet of fish, squid, & krill adds to the feces and when it hits the ground, the bacteria in the soil is what helps make the laughing gas. So, if you decide to go for a penguin diet and attempt to make your own nitous oxide, please use your own backyard.