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Saturday, May 19, 2007

Dung Beetle Stress

"The hunting of vertebrates can also affect invertebrate populations. For
example, a reduction in the amount of dung directly stresses the populations
of dung beetles."
Biotropica 39, 328; 289 (2007).

I never thought of "dung beetle" as a high-stress job.

Others, however, reinforce this notion:

Well not until there's no shit to dung around in.
-Veronique Chez Sheep

Would YOU want to do it?
-Bill in Vancouver

Most dung beetles quit their jobs after a couple of years.
-John Hatpin

So if your dung beetles can't meet their quota, what kind of job do you
threaten them with to motivate them?
-Dennis

Felch beetle.
-John Hatpin

Use scarab tactics
-Mike Kruger




1 comment:

  1. Dude,

    I loved this post. When I was in the Army (1986-90) people called me shitbug. I manned a foxhole in a frozen South Korean rice-paddy and smelled horribly (Koreans use human feces to fertilize their fields). When my roommate commented on my smell, I replied: "Yep, I'm just a regular dung-beetle." He had no idea what that was so I described it as a bug that rolled little balls of shit around North African desserts, an African shitbug.

    Aaron the Ogre

    ReplyDelete