What if I told you the strongest animal in the world
isn't gorillas,
bears
or even elephants?
If you think I'm messing with you, you're wrong.
Believe it or not, the strongest animal in the world
is the dung beetle.
Yes, I'm talking about the insect that rolls around
big balls of poop.
"Oh that's gross."
But there's more to this unique creature
than its affinity for excrement.
"That stinks."
There are about 6,000 species of dung beetles.
They vary in color from glossy black to metallic green.
Some males have long, distinctive horns,
kind of like deer antlers,
that they use to battle other dung beetles.
When competing for lady beetles, these horny males
engage in horn-to-horn pushing matches as deer do.
Non-horned males use more thoughtful strategies
like digging side-tunnels or burrows to evade aggressive
males guarding females.
These bugs are not rare and live on every continent
except Antarctica. Well, who can blame them there?
Brrrr.
One of the many places they live is in Egypt.
Also known as scarabs,
the ancient Egyptians revered dung beetles
and believed they kept the Earth revolving.
They associated scarabs with Khepri,
the god of the rising sun in Egyptian mythology.
This is why you'll often see dung beetles
adorning ancient Egyptian pottery and jewelry.
In dung beetle societies, as in ant and bee colonies,
each insect has a specific role
that serves an essential purpose.
Dung beetles belong to the roller,
tunneler
or dweller category.
The rollers are in charge of transporting dung
and stashing large balls of it in locations away
from their main dung pile.
Why keep manure, you ask?
Because this is their main source of food. Yummy.
"When you're hungry, everything looks tasty."
These buried caches allow the colony to breed and feed.
Tunnelers are in charge of creating the complex
underground pathways
through which the beetles travel and live.
The dwellers remain within the primary dung pile
and are responsible for breeding.
It is the rollers that are known for their Herculean strength.
A dung beetle can move over 1,100 times its body weight.
For a creature that is an average of
1.3 cm (0.5 in) to 6.3 cm (2.5 in) long
and weighs around 100 g (3.5 oz), that is quite a feat.
They are about 100 times stronger than ants,
another insect that lifts items much larger than its wee self.
That's like an average size human
pulling two fully-loaded 18-wheel trucks.
Researchers think this mind-boggling strength
evolved from male beetles' need to compete
for female dung beetles.
"Have you been working out?"
"Some."
Imagine if pulling two 18-wheelers
was a part of human courting rituals.
I know I'd be impressed.
It turns out these massive dung balls
are multifunctional.
The beetles use them to keep cool in hot environments,
like African savannas.
While rolling these balls in the blazing sun,
they will sit on top of the dung ball,
getting themselves off the scalding ground.
Plus, the moisture from the dung ball
helps decrease their body temperature.
They are the first insect to utilize this ingenuity.
Insects are invertebrates and don't have bones.
Regardless, There are dung beetle fossils
preserved in their dung,
giving us a record of them existing about
230 million years ago.
"Holy moly."
But there's more to these crazy creatures
than meets the eye.
These humble poop eaters are known as the unsung heroes
of the East African ecosystem.
Their main role, particularly for the roller group,
is cleaning up and moving waste
out of their environment.
This reduces the number of harmful pests,
like parasitic worms and bush flies,
which can kill cattle and destroy ecosystems.
The poop balls they roll often contain seeds
that drop along their path
and enable plant growth.
Burying their poop helps fertilize the soil,
and the tunnelers' complex pathways aerate it.
These activities help maintain a healthy ecosystem.
So if you see a dung beetle,
maybe you should give it a round of applause
instead of recoiling.
If this story about an incredibly strong animal
inspires you,
maybe you'd be interested in learning about
the ever-industrious ant.
Find out how this ingenious bug
builds bridges on another episode.
Being the strongest animal on the planet
and helping the environment is what dung beetles do.
And that's what makes them Crazy Creatures.