Dung Beetles' Favorite Feces Comes From Omnivores, Research Shows

Dung beetles get their nutrients by eating poop. They like smelly omnivore poop the best, new research indicates.

By: Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer
Published: 04/13/2012 03:56 PM EDT on LiveScience

Dung beetles prefer the smelliest poop they can find, new research on the insects suggests. Odorous dung from omnivores, which eat a diet of both plants and animals, seems to be the most attractive to the beetles. Some of the top choices? Human and chimpanzee dung.

"This novel research indicates that native dung beetle species will respond to dung from exotic animals," study researcher Wyatt Hoback, a professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, said in a statement

Dung beetles are usually pretty specific in their poop tastes, but researchers were wondering how they would react to exotic droppings, like those left by imported mammals on game farms. This was a problem in Australia, when humans imported cows and other large herbivores in 1778. The dung beetles didn't enjoy the bovine droppings, and instead flies and other parasites had a heyday.

Attracting dung lovers

The researchers used "pitfall" traps, large buckets buried in the ground, containing feces from one of many different species, or a dead, rotting rat in the bottom. Carrion, or the remains of dead animals, can also serve as a food source for dung beetles, so the researchers wanted to compare this to the dung samples. The walls of the bucket were too high for the dung beetles to crawl back out once they followed the scent. The traps were set out around a large cattle ranch in Nebraska.

They lured the beetles in with different kinds of native and exotic excrement from animals with all kinds of diets — meat eaters, plant eaters and anything-eaters (omnivores) — to capture beetles. "Native" animals in this area include bison and cougar. Some examples of "exotic" droppings they used included waterbuck, lion and chimpanzee dung.

After two summers of work in 2010 and 2011, the team had captured more than 9,000 dung beetles of 15 different species.

Poop preference

Of the dung samples, human and chimpanzee feces (both species are omnivores) attracted the most dung beetles. The dead rat sample came in next, followed by pig droppings, then poop from the carnivorous species, which included lion and tiger dung. The excrement from herbivores, including the "native" bison, came in last.

This difference in preference could largely be attributed to omnivore dung being more odiferous compared with that of herbivore dung, the researchers said.

The different dung beetle species had their individual preferences, with some choosing the omnivore dung, while others favored the carcasses of dead animals. This specificity in dietary preferences isn't related to the quality of the dung, the animal's diet, or its origin, said study researcher Sean Whipple, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"Our results suggest that even closely related species of generalist-feeding dung beetles differ in their response to novel dung types," Whipple said.

The study was published in the April 2012 issue of the journal Environmental Entomology.

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Comments

[BartRoberts]

03:10 PM on 04/17/2012

Eat s**t. 100 trillion dung beetles can't all be wrong.

[DANIELLECLARKE]

11:18 AM on 04/17/2012

hmmm a composting toilet filled with dung beattles to gobble it up fast and clean.. a million dollar idea

[pcs5141]

01:59 AM on 04/17/2012

Its nice to know dung beetles prefer human poop the most.WTF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rg9rts]

04:48 PM on 04/16/2012

I wonder what would happen if they tried it in the halls of congress? I'll wager there would be a mass exodus of beetles. This did at least answer a question that has made me sleepless for many a night. Univ of Nebr Lincoln, figures

[brw1970]

01:17 PM on 04/16/2012

What a crappy study!?

[thegriffinite]

05:18 AM on 04/16/2012

I bet the parents of the scientist who did this study are so proud.

[carnivaluv]

02:26 PM on 04/16/2012

I would be.

[thegriffinite]

02:33 AM on 04/30/2012

Well go have a kid an throw dung beetles at him or her all day demanding they study them.

[mangez merde]

09:19 PM on 04/15/2012

Dung Beetles ????

I thought stories about the GOP belong on the political page.

[Lo Chiaro]

09:16 PM on 04/15/2012

Thanks. Checked this one off my bucket list.....

[tissa]

08:00 PM on 04/15/2012

Just because they eatCrap doesn't mean they shouldn't be choosy....

[mangez merde]

12:39 AM on 04/16/2012

I chose my merde carefully.

[oldwolf49]

07:47 PM on 04/15/2012

Seriously? While I agree with the pursuit of knowledge through science and debate...............

[fattrucker]

07:04 PM on 04/15/2012

Dung Beatles would be a good name for a punk band

[Qballe]

08:00 AM on 04/16/2012

taken..

[fattrucker]

10:32 AM on 04/16/2012

figures

[SavageLeto]

05:32 PM on 04/15/2012

Well, wouldn't the feces of omnivores contain a far greater concentration of energy than a herbivores dung?

That is after all why we evolved into omnivores... so we do not have to sit around all day eating, and chewing, and chewing some more to digest.. regurgitate and chew, just to get the basic nutrients out of our food.

Dung beetles use this material to raise their young- so of course they are going to want to find the most nutrient rich source they can.

[onlyanopinion]

10:13 AM on 04/17/2012

Interesting take, thanks.

[doodlebug2]

12:17 PM on 04/15/2012

Dung beetles prefer the smelliest poop they can find, new research on the insects "

these guys are conesuers