Humans spend most of their lives physically and conversationally trying to get as far away from poo as possible. But for all our coyness when it comes to poop, there’s no denying that people are oddly fascinated by it.

So you might want to head on over to the now-open National Poo Museum at the Isle Of Wight Zoo in the U.K. The project is the brainchild of “Eccleston George,” a collective of artists, poets and musicians. The idea for the museum came to co-founder Daniel Roberts while hiking in northern Sweden, when he stumbled across a pile of poop on the ground. After noticing how oddly intrigued the group became, he wondered if a whole exhibition on the subject could grab people's curiosity. 

“Poo provokes strong reactions. Small children naturally delight in it but soon learn to avoid this yucky, disease-carrying stuff,” said Nigel George, one of the museum’s founders, on their website. “But for most of us, under the layers of disgust and taboo, we’re still fascinated by it.”

^{A collection of the resin poop spheres on display. National Poo Museum}

To preserve the poop, it is first desiccated by heating it up in a specially-built drying machine to evaporate any water. It is then sealed in a clear resin orb. Among the specimens on show is lemur poop, lion poop, human baby poop, meerkat poop, tawny owl poop containing bones and teeth, and over 15 other varieties.

The exhibition also features a selection of fossilized poo – scientifically known as coprolites – dating back 140 million years. The walls of the museum are lined with toilets, which you can open the lid of and find random facts on the science of poo and the history of our relationship with it.

The museum opened on March 25 and will stay at the zoo throughout this spring and summer. The team are also hoping to bring the unusual exhibit on a tour of the whole U.K. soon.

^{The museum's "poo tree" which, according to the museum, is "an experiment that seeks help from the public to answer a question: why do people hang dog poos in trees?" National Poo Museum}