guano

noun gua·no \ ˈgwä-(ˌ)nō \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of guano

: a fertilizer containing the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats; broadly : excrement especially of seabirds or bats

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Recent Examples of guano from the Web

Bats and their guano cause their share of grief and worry for Central Florida homeowners, but state authorities don’t have statistics on bat removals.

— stephen hudak, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Bats in your attic? Boot them out now before you can't when bat maternity season hits," 7 Apr. 2018
But satellite images of the islands revealed the pinkish-red stain of penguin guano, suggesting larger colonies than expected, said Heather Lynch, one of the five primary investigators on the new study, published Friday in Scientific Reports.

— karen weintraub, New York Times, "A Supercolony of Penguins Has Been Found Near Antarctica," 5 Mar. 2018
The sat pictures showed guano in an archipelago called the Danger Islands, a place never before studied as a possible penguin perch.

— andrew moseman, Popular Mechanics, "Secret Penguin Supercolony Discovered on Danger Islands," 2 Mar. 2018
In 2014, Lynch and her colleague Matthew Schwaller published an algorithm that could analyze satellite photos of Antarctica and flag areas as guano-smeared.

— National Geographic, "Hidden Penguin Mega-Colonies Discovered in Antarctica," 2 Mar. 2018
Just be prepared: Pack many layers, and expect the smell of penguin guano to linger on clothes long after your trip ends.

— teresa rivas, WSJ, "Antarctica Ahoy: 6 Tips on Cruising to the End of the Earth," 21 Mar. 2018
The penguins feed mostly on shrimplike krill, giving their guano a distinctive pinkish color that can be more easily seen from a satellite.

— karen weintraub, New York Times, "A Supercolony of Penguins Has Been Found Near Antarctica," 5 Mar. 2018
Thanks to a whole lot of guano showing up in pictures from space, researchers have discovered an unknown group of 1.5 million Adélie penguins.

— andrew moseman, Popular Mechanics, "Secret Penguin Supercolony Discovered on Danger Islands," 2 Mar. 2018
His own love of birds got Vogt a job on the Chincha islands off Peru, where he was supposed to advise the company that owned cormorants on how to get them to increase production of the valuable fertilizer guano.

— bill mckibben, New York Times, "To Respect the Earth’s Limits — or Push Them?," 31 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'guano.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.