- These are some serious squishers right here,
look at that, zoom in on that, you see how green that is?
No, no, guys, I am not going to eat a turd,
but the insect we are looking for today loves eating poop.
Okay, I'm gonna wipe this on Mario,
there we go, buddy and we're gonna keep walking.
Oh, beetles right here!
Look at this!
Oh, and look at the size of that ball!
(dynamic jungle music)
(light upbeat music)
The vast open wilderness of South Africa
is home to some of the world's most iconic animals
from small hoof stock like the speedy impala
to giant grazers, like the meandering elephant,
then there are the long-necked giraffes
and who could forget about the herding rhinos?
These creatures are constantly doing two things
on a daily basis, the first is eating
and the second, which you probably
have already guessed is pooping,
but where does all this poop go?
There are no toilets on the savanna to flush it down,
so what happens after Dumbo drops
a dump truck load of digested plants?
Today we aim to answer that question
by exploring the wilds of Tuinskloof,
managed by the Reserve Protection Agency,
this 13-hectare sanctuary just so happens
to be within the range of one very unique insect,
that has an affinity for stinky animal byproducts.
- [Marc] Coyote, what you doing there?
- You guys see what I'm standing in?
- [Marc] Yeah, it looks like feces.
- [Coyote] This is a giant pile of poop.
I'm gonna just go ahead and-- - Oh, he's touching it.
- You know, when in South Africa, you just roll with it
and literally today, we're gonna be looking for the thing,
that rolls pieces of poop, turd rollers themselves.
Now, I'm guessing that this is hoof stock droppings,
likely impala and kudu and that right there,
ugh, is one rock solid little turd,
now I'm not looking for kudu or impala,
I'm actually looking for the insect,
one stinky, little insect,
that loves to roll around in turds,
you guys know what I'm talking about?
- [Marc] Hm, I don't know if I wanna know.
- Stay tuned, I have a feeling
that if we head up this direction,
we're gonna find plenty of 'em.
Following the trail of turds through the environment
is not something you would typically choose to do
while out on a leisurely hike, yet if you were aiming
to have an encounter with a dung beetle,
this is one of the most reliable ways to track them down.
We skipped from scat pile to scat pile
examining the freshest of feces with the relentless hope
of happening upon some of these poop-loving professionals.
Oh man, here's another fresh pile of nuggets, look at this,
likely impala, it's so fresh,
that you can still see urine where the animal also peed,
these are some serious squishers right here, look at that.
Oh yeah, zoom in on that, you see how green that is?
That is all undigestible plant matter,
that the animal passes through its system
and then squirts out as these delicious little nuggets,
not delicious for me, no, no, guys,
I am not going to eat a turd,
but the insect we are looking for today
loves eating poop.
Okay, I'm gonna wipe this on Mario.
There we go, buddy, and we're gonna keep walking.
The South African air was filled with fresh steamers
and that meant that those dirty, little dung beetles
would be hot on the turd trail,
I could feel it in each and every step.
Ugh, gross!
And being downwind, I could smell
that we were headed in the right direction,
when sure enough, we rounded a corner
and nearly stepped into
one big, steaming pile of,
oh, beetles right here!
Look at this!
Oh, and look at the size of that ball!
Oh man, this is great, okay.
- [Marc] Is that their ball?
- That is their ball right there,
right in the middle of those other turds,
we've got two dung beetles right here in front of us,
wow, well, we've been searching for a while,
it's pretty dry, but these guys
have already made themselves a compacted ball.
Now, look at that, he's inspecting the environment,
finding his line of sight and there you go,
off to the races, he's gonna continue
to push this giant ball of compacted turds.
Now, I don't wanna interrupt this beetle,
'cause he's at work, but this one here
is likely either a female or a stealer
and I'll get into that in a second,
but what I wanna do is actually pick this beetle up,
come here, buddy.
Wow, look at that, its exoskeleton is incredibly rigid
and its feet are very strong,
now, I don't know if they bite,
I guess we'll find out here in a second,
let me see, bite?
No, doesn't bite, that's good news for me,
can you see it okay? - Hm.
- Whoa, it's hard to hold onto, because they're so strong,
I was just gonna let it walk around on my hands here.
Now, there are over 6,000 dung beetle species worldwide,
the only continent you will not find this insect
is in Antarctica, this is the Addo dung beetle,
which is indigenous to only this area here in South Africa.
When we're talking about dung beetle species,
there are several different types,
this one specifically is what we would consider a roller,
so roller actually rolls turds around
from one spot to the next,
then you also have the dwellers,
dwellers literally stay in one spot
and live in a pile of turds,
you also have the burrowers,
which will roll a ball of poop somewhere
and actually build a burrow underneath it
and then you have the stealers,
which will steal turds from other dung beetles,
I'm pretty sure that this one
is both a roller and a stealer,
because I caught this guy trying to steal the turd,
that's actually rolling underneath your feet
right now, Marc.
- [Marc] Oh, I thought I smelled something.
- [Mario] You're causing a little traffic jam there, buddy.
- [Marc] Yeah, I was like, I got a whiff of something,
I was like where did the ball, oh, it's right by my shoe.
- [Coyote] And do you know what?
That beetle will not stop for you, Marc,
he is on a determined mission
to get that ball of poop back to its burrow.
Now when it comes to dung beetles,
they're actually very specific
as to what kind of turds they will eat,
they primarily feast on herbivore and omnivore turds,
but this species specifically,
I'm guessing feeds on kudu and impala turds,
but I know for a fact that they also feast on elephant dung,
now there are no elephants in this area,
so like I said, the kudu and the impala turds,
that we saw earlier are certainly
fair opportunity for having a feast.
- [Marc] Hey Mario,
is turd the scientific term we wanna use?
- Turd, poop, dung,
feces. - Animal scat,
yes, no matter how you choose to phrase it,
I like to call 'em turds and these creatures,
as gross as it is to say it, love to eat turds.
Now, they feast on the turds,
they actually will line
the inside of their burrows with turds,
their whole world revolves around turds
and they prefer a fresh turd,
right now, it's pretty dry out,
so we actually had some trouble finding these beetles,
but we found a fresh pile of kudu scat
and sure enough, with it came some dung beetles,
super cool, right?
- [Marc] I got a fun, little game.
- Yeah?
- [Marc] Everybody at home should watch this video again
and count how many times you say the word, turd.
- You know, I have said the word, turd more times today
and more so in this episode, than ever before,
I've touched turds today, we've got beetles eating turds,
we've got beetles rolling turds,
it is certainly a turd sandwich of an episode.
(laughing)
Turd, turd, turd, turds, turd, turd, turds,
turd, turds, turd, turds, turds, turds, turd,
turds, turds, turd, turds, turd, turd, turd,
turds, turds, turd, turd, turd, turd, turd,
turd, turd, turd, turd, turd, turd, turd,
turd, turd, turds, turd, turd, turd, turd,
turd, turd, turd, turd, turd, turd, turd,
turd, turd, turd, turd, turd, turd, turd, turds.
Man, my hands don't smell like anything, which is good
and I keep calling these the stinky, little insect,
but doesn't smell like anything, talk to me, buddy,
do you have poop breath?
No poop breath on this guy.
Now, what's really fascinating about these insects
is that while they may seem like simple creatures,
they're simply eating poop,
they're very much in tune with the environment,
they're actually using UV rays from the sun
to help them navigate.
Now at night, when there isn't any sun out,
scientists believe that they use the stars
to navigate the environment, as they're aiming
to push their turd ball back to their burrow
and this one that we have just here off to our side here,
that's just continuously pushing its turd
down this trail is completely on a straight line,
it will do everything it can to stay on course
and make sure that that turd ball gets back to its burrow.
- [Marc] Speaking of turd ball,
how about we get back to the turd ball?
- Yeah, let's check this out,
I'm gonna bring this little beetle back over here,
watch out, Marc, the big turd ball's right here now,
the beetle will come back and find this,
I'm gonna actually pick it up for a second,
look at that, wow, whoa, it is heavy,
look at that.
- [Marc] Oh, I'm gonna regret this.
- That is a compacted ball
of herbivore poop right there. - Ooh, it's kind of wet.
- It's heavy, right?
Well, the more moist the poop is,
the better it is for the beetles.
Now watch what's gonna happen, as soon as the beetle
picks back up the scent of this turd,
they have an incredible sense of smell,
he's gonna climb back up on top of it,
spin around in a circle, regain its line of sight
and then pop back down
and use its hind legs to push the turd.
Here we go, just like I said, watch this,
climbs up on top, here we go, do your spin,
line of sight is acquired and boom, off to the races.
Now pound for pound, this is one
of the strongest insect species in the world,
capable of pushing things
almost 1,000 times their own body weight,
that's like me weighing 150 pounds,
pushing six eight-ton buses, isn't that crazy?
That is one powerful creature,
now look, it's on this hillside and it's thinking,
"I'm not gonna get up that,"
but it will just keep moving along the edge of this ridge,
until it finds its way back to its burrow.
Well, this is pretty fascinating,
searching amongst the South African terrain for turds,
that ultimately led us to the one and only dung beetle.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave,
stay wild, we'll see you on the next adventure.
(light upbeat music)
When I think back on all of the strange bugs
the Brave Wilderness team and I have encountered,
I would definitely have to say
that the dung beetle was one of the most entertaining,
these little, environmental cleanup crews
are doing the world of good for the ecosystem
and without them, the world would literally
be covered in animal scat,
or feces, urgh!
Or poop,
or turds, as I like to call them.
So on behalf of us all, I would like to say
thank you to all the dung beetles out there,
that are helping keep our planet free of poopies,
keep up the good work, guys, we see you rollin'.
(light upbeat music)
Wait, don't go anywhere,
Brave Wilderness has a brand new store
with a wave of adventurous, new designs,
including a limited edition dung beetle,
They See Me Rollin' T-shirt.
Hey Coyote Pack, I have some exciting news.
I am proud to announce that the crew and I
are headed back on tour with Brave Wilderness Live,
our next shows take place in the Midwest,
tickets can be purchased at the Brave Wilderness website
and these shows are certain to sell out,
so make sure that you reserve your seats today
and don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew on our next big adventure.
(cheering audience)
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave.
- [Audience] Stay wild!
(light jungle music)