Poo Week runs throughout half term

Poo Week at Paignton Zoo will be focused on the Discovery Centre with staff and scientists demonstrating why they find dung so fascinating.

Visitors will be shown how dung can be used to create fertiliser.

Zoo volunteers will also be making paper out of Paignton Zoo rhino dung and selling sheets to raise money for rhino conservation.

'Very important'

Head of Science Dr. Amy Plowman said: "When it comes to field conservation, dung is usually easier to find than the animals themselves.

"You can estimate how many animals are in an area.

"This is very important for conservation work and we are using the technique in Zimbabwe in our work with rare antelopes called duikers in the Matopos National Park."

Exeter-based company EcoSci will also be on hand to show how they blend dung from some of the zoo's animals with green waste and turn it into fertiliser .