For thousands of years birds had been defecating on Nauru, and deep piles of bird dung lay in the island’s center — “Topside,” as Naurans call it. Bird guano is rich in phosphorous ...

Bird**** — or, more precisely, guano — was Nauru's original golden goose, and once made up a goodly chunk of the its geology. The tiny island — not much bigger than LA International Airport ...

Nauru, a raised coral atoll in southeastern Micronesia ... the island nation briefly boasted the world’s highest GDP per capita thanks mostly to guano (seafowl excrement), which had accumulated ...