Ever wondered about some of the great Africa’s wildlife unsung heroes, possibly not. They could be looked at as a dirty species but wait, they could be having a higher IQ than most of the known wildlife. The feed on excrete material, to be precise, feaces. The unsung heroes of Africa have to be dung beetles. Why? These little rollers literally live on poop and can roll dung up to 50 times their body weight in a straight line, despite all obstacles.
They are a true definition of recyclers of the bush. With six legs and long flying wings folded under hard, protective covers, dung beetles are the forest sweepers. A recent scientific discovery explained that they use the Milky Way as a compass and the only known non-vertebrate animal to navigate and orient itself using the Milky Way.
Both male and female dung beetles have different roles when it comes to what to do with the dung they collect. The rollers, roll dung into round balls, which are used as a food source or breeding chambers. Others, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in manure.
There are dung beetle species of different colors and sizes, and some functional traits such as body mass (or biomass) and leg length can have high levels of variability. Many of them also feed on mushrooms and decaying leaves and fruits.
Most dung beetles search for dung using their sensitive sense of smell. Some smaller species simply attach themselves to the dung-providers to wait for the dung. After capturing the dung, a dung beetle rolls it (ball like), following a straight line despite all obstacles. They over come some obstacles by flying over them as they hold on their luggage using their strong wings. However not all dung beetles can fly.
Sometimes, dung beetles try to steal the dung ball from another beetle, so the dung beetles have to rapidly move away a dung pile once they have rolled their ball to prevent it from being stolen. Some male dung beetles have strong horns on their heads for protection in battle.
Interestingly, Dung beetles can roll up to 10 times their weight. Imaginary, Male Dung beetles can pull 1,141 times their own body weight: the equivalent of an average person pulling six double-decker buses full of people.
Dung Beetles ave a keen sense of smell and prefer fresh dung because it is easier to roll it a ball like structure.
Unfortunately, for most dung beetles, not just any poop will do. Many dung beetles specialize on the dung of particular animals, or types of animals, and simply will not touch the poo of other critters.
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