Dung beetles

In the bush, nothing is wasted. A carcass, for example, when finished from our point of view is nothing of the sort. Horns are broken down by the larvae of horn borer moths, old bones are sucked and chewed by a variety of animals from giraffes to leopard tortoises providing vital nutrients.

A dung beetles rolls his ball away

Similarly, dung is not finished with once it hits the ground. The eating of dung, or ‘coprophagia’ is exhibited by a number of animals such as warthogs, scrub hares and leopard tortoises.

But the creatures best-associated with dung are of course the dung beetle species. Yesterday, following the visit of an elephant, we were able to witness the beetles at work, up close and personal! Within minutes of the elephant defecating several dung beetles had arrives on the scene, rolling large balls with incredible speed and precision before rolling them away. 

These balls will most likely be used by female dung beetles to lay their eggs in. Only one egg is laid per ball, keeping male dung beetles busy as a single female may lay up to 60 eggs per season.

These two dung beetles were having a scrap over a particular dung ball