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Dung beetle
Two things that you wouldn’t expect to go together – navigating by the stars, and a love for excrement – unite in the fascinating dung beetle. This amazing insect can be seen in the South African bush, especially after elephants and other animals have relieved themselves, and left steaming piles of waste on the ground.
The dung beetle, with no thought for the smell or disgusting aspects of what he is about to do, shapes the faeces into a tennis ball-sized ball, and rolls it towards a predetermined location. This is often done at night, and the dung beetle has the ability to figure out exactly where to go by using stellar navigation.
There are several different types of dung beetles, some that lay their eggs in the dung, some that live in the dung, some that eat the dung and some that do a bit of each. One type of dung beetle steals the balls of excrement from the other dung beetles and uses the balls to feed its young.
You wouldn’t think that balls of waste would be in high demand, but they are. The nutrients in the waste are very healthy for the dung beetle larvae, especially when it’s from the waste of herbivores, animals that only eat plants, such as elephants.
Dung beetles, which live for around three years, were immortalised by the ancient Egyptians, who made beautiful sculptures of them, called scarabs.
Dung beetles are very busy rolling dung all summer long, then they sleep during the winter. On a dung mattress, one would assume.
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