[ ♫ intro ]
Hi, everyone!
Jessi here.
I hope you’ve all been —
Oh, hey, Squeaks!
What’s going on?
[Squeaks squeaks, sounding excited]
Whoa, no way you saw what?
That’s amazing!
Squeaks was just saying that he saw a really strange insect today.
He said that it was a black beetle that was pushing a big ball of dirt
[Squeaks squeaks]
Oh, do I know what it is?
Well, I think I do… and you’re never going to believe it.
That insect you saw was called a dung beetle.
Dung beetles are… well, they’re a kind of beetle!
Like other insects, beetles have six legs and two pairs of wings.
But their wings are kind of strange.
One pair is hard and sturdy,
and it covers the back part of their bodies like a shield.
Then, underneath them is a second
pair of wings that the beetles flap to fly around.
Beetles are one of the biggest groups of animals.
There are more than 350,000 kinds of beetle around the world!
[Squeaks squeaks excitedly]
You’re right, Squeaks — that’s a huge number!
[To Audience] neral are cool, but dung beetles are especially
cool.
They’re a specific kind of beetle, and they live all over the world —
on every continent except Antarctica.
And most of them are pretty small —
not more than a few centimeters long.
Dung beetles come in all kinds of colors, from black to shiny green.
they have body parts that you can use to tell them apart from some other beetles!
Like, they have horns on the front of their heads!
Dung beetles use these horns to fight each other for things like food or to fight over
a mate —
that’s someone they want to have babies with.
Dung beetles also have strong wings, which they use to fly around looking for —
well, again, for food!
And finally, dung beetles have really strong legs.
In fact, they’re some of the strongest animals in the world for their size!
[Squeaks squeaks]
I know, Squeaks!
I haven’t forgotten about that ball you saw your dung beetle pushing around.
Do you have any ideas about what that was?
I’ll give you a hint: It wasn’t dirt.
[Squeaks guesses.]
Hm, mud is a pretty good guess.
But mud is just wet dirt and soil.
I’ll give you one more hint:
Think about why dung beetles might be called dung beetles.
[Squeaks gets it!]
Exactly!
That ball you saw the beetle pushing was made of dung.
And dung is just another word for poop!
When a dung beetle is flying around looking for food,
it usually isn’t looking for seeds or fruit —
foods lots of other animals eat.
Instead, it’s looking for poop from bigger animals, like cows!
When a dung beetle is exploring,
it might come across a big pile of poop from a cow.
And when it finds one, it will take some of that poop, form it into a nice,
round ball, and then roll it away!
[Squeaks]
Oh, great question, Squeaks.
Because you’re right:
Touching poop isn’t something we should do
because it has all sorts of germs that could get us sick.
So what are dung beetles doing with cow poop?
Well, lots of things!
Once they have a dung ball, they’ll roll it over to the tunnels where they live.
And once they’re there, they might bury the ball to save it for later,
or a female dung beetle might lay her eggs in the ball —
kind of like how birds lay their eggs in nests made of sticks and grass.
But the biggest thing dung beetles do is eat that poop!
They suck the liquids out of the dung ball, and that’s their biggest source of food.
[Squeaks is grossed out.]
I see your point!
Eating poop isn’t something we should do.
It’s not good for humans —
or robot rats!
But dung beetles have been doing this for millions of years,
so they don’t get sick from it.
In fact, they get all sorts of good nutrients from the poop!
Nutrients are things like vitamins and minerals that help living things grow.
If you’ve ever heard about Vitamin C in oranges or calcium in milk,
those are nutrients.
Your body uses those things to help build bones and muscles
and to keep your whole body healthy.
And animals like cows and dung beetles need nutrients, too.
Animals like cows get their nutrients from eating plants, like grass.
But sometimes, their bodies aren’t able to get all the nutrients out of their meals.
So some of those good vitamins and minerals travel straight through their bodies
and end up in their poop instead!
And that’s when dung beetles show up!
By eating poop, they get all the nutrients the bigger animals missed out on.
And that keeps them healthy!
They actually depend on the cows to poop so they can get their food!
Isn’t that surprising?
This is also why female dung beetles lay their eggs in poop!
When the eggs hatch, little larvae crawl out of them.
They crawl right onto the poop, so they have a meal waiting for them as soon as they’re
born!
Wow… thanks for asking, Squeaks!
I’m so glad we got to talk about dung beetles today!
If you want to keep having fun and learning new things with Squeaks and me,
you can hit the subscribe button.
And we'll see you next time here at The Fort!
[ ♫ outro ♫]