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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about dung beetles. There are somewhere around 6,000 known dung beetle species and they are found all throughout the world... except Antarctica. These insects have fascinated humans for centuries with early Egyptians viewing the rolling of the dung beetle’s dung ball as representative of the sun being rolled across the sky; the dung beetle’s fascinating life cycle has also been considered a symbol of life and rebirth and even reincarnation. But why exactly do dung beetles even like dung? Wherever there is poop, dung beetles are sure to follow. These insects live in all kinds of habitats including deserts, forests, grasslands, savannas, and even urban areas! They fly around using their antennae to locate a fresh patty - because, for these bugs, the fresher the poop the better it is. Dung beetle adults tend to gravitate to the feces of herbivorous animals. Herbivore poop is made up of mostly a fibrous mass of indigestible plant material and liquids. It’s the liquids that adult dung beetles are eating; their babies, however, take the solid stuff.

Dung is not only part of dung beetle diets, it plays an integral role in their life cycles. There are three types of dung beetles: the rollers, the tunnelers, and the dwellers. Roller dung beetles are probably the most well known; they’re the ones who push around balls of dung. These dung beetles try to roll their dung balls in a straight line, only diverting from that path if an obstacle prevents them from going straight. They may use the position of the sun, the moon, or even the Milky Way galaxy to navigate their surroundings. After reaching their destination, the roller dung beetles will bury their dung ball either to be eaten or as a nest for a single egg! That’s a lot of work for just one baby! Mother rollers may split the ball into sections to lay a few more eggs. The males will leave to find other females, but the mamas stick around, tending the dung ball until their children emerge. This kind of motherly love is rare in the arthropod world, though not unheard of. Tunneler dung beetles don’t move the dung from where it landed but instead burrow under it. Here they’ll create a network of tunnels with egg chambers at the ends. These egg chambers will be provisioned with dung from the pile above. One or both of the parents may stay to ensure the eggs aren’t disturbed by hungry predators or sneaky parasites - we’ll be coming back to these parasites, so stay tuned! Dweller dung beetles end up living right in the dung. They’ll make brood balls in the poo patty itself. From egg to adult, any dung beetle’s life cycle may last a few short weeks to multiple months. The longest living dung beetle may reach three years in age.

Male dung beetles can often be told apart from females because they come with horns, but this isn’t always the case! In size, dung beetles range from less than an inch to more than two inches long as adults. Some dung beetle species even have grabby little claws which they can use to hold onto the fur of a mammal. Why fly around and look for poop when you can hitch a ride on the animal that produces it and just wait!

Not all dung beetles partake in the consumption of bodily wastes, however. Some dung beetles eat mushrooms, some eat seeds and fruit, some are even predators who hunt animals like millipedes and leaf cutter ants! Those who do eat poop may not solely seek out the wastes of herbivores with some species targeting carnivores instead. Considering a group of dung beetles can reduce a pile of poop to nothing in a matter of hours, their main habitats are fleeting. These insects need to be able to utilize all kinds of strategies to continue to survive when the location of their next meals aren’t easily determined. Competition at a poo pile is fierce! There are even some dung beetle species who will let the others do all the work in making brood chambers and then swoop in to replace the original eggs with their own! This is why parental protection is so important in the dung beetle world!

For more facts on dung beetles check out the links in the description. Thank you to forest for today’s request! Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.