13/08/2025
Nature’s Tiny Titans in the Kruger National Park
Did you know Kruger shelters nearly 800 dung beetle species, each a master recycler and miniature powerhouse?
They roll dung balls up to 50× their weight, even navigating by wind, sun, and the Milky Way! What’s more? They bury over 2 billion tonnes of dung every year—nurturing the soil, controlling pests, and keeping our bushveld thriving. Let’s celebrate these unsung heroes of the veld!
Some Fascinating things about Dung Beetles
1. Species Richness – A Hidden Multitude
Globally, dung beetles number around 8,000 species, with South Africa hosting approximately 780 species
These species belong to the Scarabaeidae family and the Coprinae sub-family, especially prevalent in Kruger National Park
2. The Four Incredible Behaviours
Dung beetles exhibit four key ecological strategies:
Rollers (Telecoprids): Form and roll dung balls away from the pile, often as part of courtship and nesting
Tunnelers (Paracoprids): Dig beneath dung piles to bury duff directly under the source
Dwellers (Endocoprids): Live and breed inside the dung pile itself
Stealers (Kleptocoprids): Swipe dung balls from rollers for their own use
3. Why the Ball Rolling?
Dung beetles engage in ball rolling for multiple intriguing reasons:
Resource Competition: By rolling dung away, rollers reduce theft and competition, securing a safe site for mating and nesting
Reproduction & Provisioning: Males shape dung into balls as an offering to females. Once accepted, the pair buries the ball, and the female lays an egg inside, ensuring the larva has immediate nourishment
Thermal Relief: On sweltering days, beetles climb onto their dung balls, they’re cooler than the ground and help protect the beetle's feet
4. Superstar Strength & Remarkable Navigation
Incredible strength: Dung rollers can push balls up to 50 times their body weight. One documented species can pull 1,141 times its own weight, equivalent to a human pulling six double-decker buses
Master navigators:
They use polarized sunlight and the position of the sun or moon as compasses during rolling
When the sun is overhead at noon, they detect wind direction through their antennae to keep rolling straight
Remarkably, nocturnal species like Scarabaeus satyrus can navigate using the Milky Way’s glow, a rare behaviour in the insect world
5. Ecological VIPs: Unsung Heroes of the Ecosystem
In some prime habitats, researchers extracted nearly 12,000 dung beetles from just 1.5 kg of elephant dung, underscoring their abundance in Kruger National Park
They act as nature’s cleanup crew: burying dung, which recycles nutrients, enhances soil fertility, improves soil permeability, and suppresses pests and parasites
Impressively, they can bury more than one metric ton of dung per hectare per year. In Kruger, that's over 2 billion tons annually—safeguarding the land from parasites and contributing to ecosystem health
