Scarab Beetles

Yala National Park, Sri Lanka
25th December, 2020

Driving along a track shortly after an elephant had passed we found three pieces of freshly dropped elephant dung already being harvested by a group of Scarab beetles; elephants digest less than half of what they eat and their waste consequently has a high fibre content, hence its interest to the beetles and use by humans such as to make paper.

Using my 5D mk IV already fitted with 100-400 and 1.4x extender, I took some images shooting directly down from the side of the safari jeep. Not easy as the jeep rocked easily on its springs and I needed to use spot focus as well as well as the maximum equivalent focal length of 560mm. The beetles created balls that they rolled in the sand with their rear and middle legs whilst walking on their front pair, and when coated they added another layer of dung before repeating. Once the ball was large enough, they rolled it to their home at considerable speed again using their rear legs.

Fascinating, as it was to see the other creatures living on the beetles' backs and two of beetles repeatedly squabble over the same pile of dung - but unpleasant to see these creatures about the size of a thumb fly in to start their work!

A couple more to show how they work.

Interesting indeed
You've captured that very nicely.
We have dung beetles that are encouraged, by some, in pasture management.
They don't act like these though.