Latrine

The word latrine can refer to a toilet or a simpler facility which is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. It can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp, a hole in the ground (pit), or more advanced designs, including pour-flush systems. Latrines are still commonly used in emergency situations, as well as in army camps.

The term is derived from the Latin lavatrina, meaning bath. It is nowadays still commonly used in the term "pit latrine". For most people, it has the connotation of something being less advanced and less hygienic than a toilet. It is typically used to describe communal facilities, such as the shallow-trench latrines used in emergency situations, e.g. after an earthquake, flooding event or other natural disaster.

Types

Many forms of latrine technology have been used, from utterly simple to more sophisticated - although the more sophisticated, the more likely that the term "toilet" is used instead of "latrine".

A Pit latrine is a simple and inexpensive toilet, minimally defined as a hole (pit) in the ground. More sophisticated pit latrines may include a floor plate, or ventilation to reduce odor and fly and mosquito breeding (called ventilated improved pit latrine or "VIP latrine"). Other types of pit latrines may include the Reed Odourless Earth Closet (ROEC), Arborloos (a very simple type of composting toilet) or the twin pit pour-flush pit latrine, popularized by Sulabh International.

Animal latrine

Animal latrines (latrine areas,animal toilets, defecation sites) are places where wildlife animals habitually defecate and urinate. Many kinds of animals are highly specific in this respect and have stereotyped routines, including approach and departure. Many of them have communal, i.e., shared latrines.

Animals with dedicated defecation sites

Animals with communal latrines include raccoons, Eurasian badgers,elephants,deer,antelopes,horses, and dicynodonts (a 240-million-year-old site is the "world's oldest public toilet").

A regularly used toilet area or dunghill, created by many mammals, such as hyraxes or moles, is also called a midden.

Some lizards, such as yakka skinks (Egernia rugosa) and thorny devils use dedicated defecation sites.

European rabbits may deposit their pellets both randomly over the range and at communal latrine sites.

Function and impact

Territoriality

Middens and other types of defecation sites may serve as territorial markers. Elaborate "dungpile rituals" are reported for adult stallions, and deer bucks, which are thought to serve for confrontation avoidance. In contrast, female and young animals exhibit no such behavior.