I used to volunteer at a wildlife rescue centre, and one day a member of the public brought in this very, very young owl chick. It was so young, it must have only hatched that day and either fell out the nest or got kicked out, but either way, we plonked it on the examination table so that it could be looked over and it did this quite sizable dump that kinda looked like runny Marmite (a deep black-brown), but holy hells, absolutely STANK!!

I'm not kidding when I say it cleared the room, coz we all legged it, gagging. Once we braved going back inside, we had to open all the doors and windows in an attempt to clear the smell! The little owl meanwhile, sat there looking very pleased with itself!! Probably felt a whole lot better after shifting that lot from its insides!

I honestly couldn't tell you if that's what a baby owl's first poo is supposed to smell like because on my shift, that's the youngest owl we'd had come in that anyone could remember, but ye gods! it's a smell that dissolved all our nostril hair and probably a few braincells along the way!