Page 34 - Dainfern Precinct Living July Issue 2025

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

PLAYING DRESS-UP

WITH DUNG BEETLES

B Y PETER S T OFFBERG

ou’ve probably seen photos of costumed domestic cats
sporting clothing, shoes, hats and slightly murderous
Yfacial expressions. It’s silly and pointless, but can be quite
amusing, especially to cat people. Then there’s the group of
people who dressed-up dung beetles. Go ahead and reread that if
you need to, but you will be pleased to know that it was anything
but pointless.

Sheep and cattle farming is huge in Australia, but unfortunately,
the number of creatures that can deal with the volume and
nature of the dung, is not. As a result, grazing land has been
suffocated under the covering of unprocessed dung, and flies and
intestinal parasites have thrived, causing disease, suffering and
massive agricultural losses.
Scientists wondered if African dung beetles could solve the
problem, after all, if they clean up after elephants, cows should
be a cinch. This led to various studies to determine suitable
species and the best way to introduce them. What has come
out of this research, especially the way it was conducted, is just
brilliant.

Apparently some beetles can drag a thousand times their body
weight (that’s like a 70kg person pulling six double-decker buses).
We know this because someone glued threads to the little guys
and measured the weight they could shift.
The beetles navigate, with extreme accuracy, by the light of the
sun and moon, and by the position of the Milky Way. Researchers
learned this by sticking sky-obscuring hats on them and noting
their resultant loss of direction. Tests were conducted in the
Jo’burg planetarium so that different night skies could be
simulated. ON SITE SUNDAY SERVICES @ 9h30
www.familychurch.online
It was also discovered why they take regular breaks on top of their
dung-ball as they roll it across the burning sand to bury it. The DAINFERN COLLEGE AUDITORIUM
moisture evaporation from the dung cools their feet. Researchers
learned this by fitting little silicon boots to some beetles
and noting how they rest less frequently than their barefoot the flies and parasites, restoring grazing lands and saving
associates. animals, jobs and money.
This and other fantastic research has helped to implement a very
successful dung beetle introduction project down-under, reducing
God has designed everything and everyone for a purpose, from
the dung beetle to the people who dress and study them. “For we
are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,
so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
(Ephesians 2:10 NLT).

It may help to remember this when we struggle to understand
people who aren’t like us - and it will certainly help when we lose
our sense of direction in life (like a dung beetle with a hat on).
A relationship with our Designer, through Jesus Christ, reveals
our purpose and empowers us to realise it. Through Him, we’re
anything but pointless.

32 DPL issue 6 2025