UK National Poo Museum opens for business

The National Poo Museum is opened with an official toilet paper cutting ceremony. Photo / Twitter, @poomuseum

A UK museum dedicated to poo, with real-life examples from the animal and human world, has opened to the public.

The exhibition at the Isle of Wight Zoo is the first in the UK to have a focus of faeces and features excrement from animals such as elks and lions as well as a human baby.

Poo that started it all. #Lion poo from @IsleofWight_Zoo This first unsuccessful attempt still takes pride of place! pic.twitter.com/Hizpbu3k6q

— National Poo Museum (@PooMuseum) March 23, 2016

The National Poo Museum has been created by members of the artist collective Eccleston George.

The group has created 20 illuminated resin spheres to show off the different types of poo with interesting facts hidden behind retro toilet lids which line the museum walls.

The display also includes fossilised poo (coprolites) dating back 140 million years as well as a tawny owl pellet containing bones and teeth.

Among other species faeces, we'll be shining a light on poo belonging to a #Meerkat this weekend @IsleofWight_Zoo pic.twitter.com/a72hYf6VpK

— National Poo Museum (@PooMuseum) March 24, 2016

"Poo provokes strong reactions," Nigel George, one of the exhibition's curators, said.

"Small children naturally delight in it but later we learn to avoid this yucky, disease-carrying stuff, and that even talking about poo is bad.

"But for most of us, under the layers of disgust and taboo, we're still fascinated by it."

- AAP