Sunday, June 11, 2006

Poo Fighters


After a few days on safari, the thrill of elephants and lions starts to wear off. And then you start to look for smaller things--mongoose, wild dogs, birds, beetles.

We saw this dung beetle on the way to Amboseli National Park. It was pushing its dung ball along, making it bigger and bigger and presumably looking for somewhere to bury it.

Dung beetles are not exclusive to Africa. But I'd never seen one before. They both eat feces and roll them into round balls. They bury the balls and then lay eggs in them.

Other dung beetles lie in wait and try to steal the ball. Then there is a big beetle battle. I guess it's easier to abscond with someone else's ball of dung than to collect enough crap to make one yourself.

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