Dung Beetles

I have been negligent. All this time I have been concentrating my posts on the big guys—lions, elephant, buffalo—and I have neglected to mention the lowly, but important, dung beetle. This very large insect looks like a small bird and sounds like a mammoth bee. 

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Dung beetles love the fresh stuff, and they really love elephant poo. They make dung balls, fight over them, and roll their spoils away as quickly as possible. It is a vicious fight to see who keeps any one ball. (See below for video footage.)

2. Never have an animated conversation with your window down while driving through elephant territory. Better to keep your mouth closed. I speak authoritatively on that from having had a near miss. 

3. Dung beetles really like elephant poo but they are not actually that particular. When we camped in Khutse in Botswana, we had a contest. Who can get the most dung beetles in one, ahem, sitting. Well, I won twelve to eight. But only because I’m a slow shoveler.

I would include more photos, but this is probably one of those less-is-more situations.