The Dung Beetle’s Dirty Job — And Why It’s Saving the Planet

When you think of heroic animals, you might picture lions, dolphins, or elephants. But somewhere at ground level, quietly pushing balls of poop across the dirt, lives a creature that does more for the Earth than most animals combined.

Meet the dung beetle — a tiny insect with a giant impact. It doesn’t have flashy fur, sharp claws, or graceful wings. What it has is an obsession with poop — and that obsession is exactly what makes it one of the planet’s greatest recyclers, farmers, and cleaners.

Who Are the Dung Beetles?

Dung beetles are part of the Scarabaeidae family — the same beetle group as scarabs in ancient Egyptian mythology. There are over 6,000 species found on every continent except Antarctica.

Their diet? Animal faeces. They eat it, live in it, raise their young in it, and roll it across fields with unwavering determination.

Dung beetles are divided into three main types, depending on how they use dung:

• Rollers – roll dung into balls to bury and eat later

• Tunnelers – dig tunnels beneath dung piles and pull dung underground

• Dwellers – live inside the dung itself

It’s not glamorous. But it’s one of the most important jobs in the natural world.

Why Poop? The Science Behind Their Obsession

Why would any creature want to live off poop? Simple: it’s nutrient-rich, abundant, and unguarded.

Animal dung contains:

• Undigested plant matter

• Bacteria

• Nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon

• Moisture — important in dry environments

For dung beetles, it's a buffet. And because dung is constantly being produced by herbivores and omnivores, it’s a never-ending resource.

What’s waste to us is wealth to them.

Dung Beetles as Planet-Saving Cleaners

Without dung beetles, pastures and wild lands would be buried in faeces. In fact, before dung beetles were introduced to Australia, cow poop piled up across farmland, killing grass and spreading parasites.

Here’s what dung beetles do:

• Remove waste from the surface

• Reduce fly populations by destroying breeding sites

• Prevent parasite spread by burying dung quickly

• Aerate soil by digging
• Fertilize the ground by spreading nutrients underground

In just one night, a small group of dung beetles can bury up to a ton of dung. That’s environmental service at its finest.

The Strength of a Super Insect

Dung beetles aren’t just smart — they’re ridiculously strong.

A species called Onthophagus taurus can pull over 1,000 times its body weight. That’s like a human dragging six double-decker buses.

They use their legs to grip the dung ball, then push it backward with their hind legs in an awkward but effective motion. It's one of the strongest performances in the animal kingdom, pound for pound.

For their size, they’re the world’s strongest creatures.

Raising Babies in Poop — The Nursery of Nature

Female dung beetles lay their eggs inside dung balls that are buried underground. These dung balls serve as both protection and food source for the larvae.

When the egg hatches, the larva starts eating its way through the dung, absorbing nutrients until it transforms into an adult beetle.

This method:

• Keeps eggs safe from predators

• Provides nutrition from birth

• Reduces exposure to harmful bacteria

It may be a dirty crib, but it’s the perfect start to life for a dung beetle.

The Cosmic Navigators of the Insect World

One of the most fascinating discoveries in recent years: some dung beetles navigate using the Milky Way.

Yes, actual starlight.

At night, beetles use the band of stars in our galaxy to roll their dung balls in a straight line away from competitors. This was proven in 2013 when scientists placed tiny hats over beetles’ eyes — and those without visual access to the sky couldn’t roll in a straight line.

They're not just poop pushers — they’re celestial navigators.

Dung Beetles in Human History and Culture

Dung beetles were sacred in ancient Egypt. The scarab beetle represented rebirth, transformation, and the sun god Ra.

They observed beetles rolling balls of dung across the ground and compared it to the movement of the sun across the sky. Scarab amulets and carvings were used for protection, buried with pharaohs, and worn as symbols of life.

Even thousands of years ago, people knew there was something powerful about these insects.

From filth comes fertility. From dirt comes divinity.

Ecological Impact: The Unsung Heroes of the Food Chain

Dung beetles help every part of the ecosystem. Here's how:

• Grasslands thrive thanks to soil fertilisation

• Herbivores stay healthy by grazing on cleaner land

• Predator populations stay balanced due to parasite control

• Humans benefit through better livestock health and less pollution

They may not roar or soar, but dung beetles are part of why ecosystems don’t collapse under their own waste.

They’re nature’s janitors, and we’d be buried without them.

Dung Beetles vs. Modern Agriculture

In many parts of the world, livestock overgrazing and chemical use are harming soil health. Dung beetles are being studied as a natural solution to restore balance.

Some farms in Africa, Australia, and Europe are actively reintroducing native dung beetle species to:

• Improve pasture quality

• Break down animal waste faster

• Reduce use of chemical fertilisers

Nature already built a cleaning crew — we just have to let them do their job.

Final Thoughts: The Beauty of the “Gross” Things

The dung beetle is proof that you don’t have to be cute to be important. You don’t need shiny feathers, big eyes, or fancy fur to change the world.

With every dung ball they roll, these beetles clean the earth, feed their families, and balance entire ecosystems. And they’ve been doing it for millions of years.

So the next time you wrinkle your nose at a bug in the dirt, remember — it might be the one holding everything together.