Guano facts for kids

Guano is the excrement of bats and birds. This excrement is exceptionally high in nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, three nutrients which are essential for plant growth. Therefore, it is often used as fertilizer, to make plants grow more quickly.

Images for kids

The nest of the Peruvian booby is made of almost pure guano.
The Guanay cormorant has historically been the most important producer of guano.
Man-made Guano Island near Walvis Bay in Namibia
The mineral whitlockite, which is found in bat guano
Chincha Islands where guano was found in abundance. Mining was done on site and ships transported it to Europe.
Advertisement for guano, 1884
Aerial view of Guano Point. Old tramway headhouse is at the end of dirt road (right). Second tramway tower is more clearly visible, on skyline to right. Bat Cave mine is 760 m (2,500 ft) below, across the canyon.
Workers load guano onto a cart in 1865
A large colony of Guanay cormorants on South Chincha Island of Peru in 1907
Chinese laborers stand on a partially extracted guano deposit in the Chincha Islands in 1865
The Ozark cavefish, a species that depends on bat guano as a source of food.
Cave cockroaches on guano