Two Year Study Finds Dung Beetles Prefer Human and Chimpanzee Dung

Posted on April 12, 2012

Sean D. Whipple, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and W. Wyatt Hoback, a biology professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, used pitfall traps baited with various native and exotic herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore dung to evaluate dung beetle preference in the Great Plains of North America.

After spending two years capturing more than 9,000 dung beetles from 15 different species, the researchers found omnivore dung was the most attractive to the dung beetles. Chimpanzee and human dung had the highest mean capture rate. The researchers say this can largely be attributed to omnivore dung being more odiferous in comparison to that of herbivore dung.

Native Nebraskan dung beetles which coevolved with bison showed little attraction to bison dung compared with waterbuck, zebra, donkey, and moose dung. They preferred the dung from more exotic animals.

Dr. Whipple says, "Our results suggest that even closely related species of generalist-feeding dung beetles differ in their response to novel dung types. In addition, preference for a specific manure does not appear to be correlated with dung quality, mammalian diet, or origin of mammal."

Dr. Hoback says, "This novel research indicates that native dung beetle species will respond to dung from exotic animals, and that there is an apparent mismatch of species to resources. This mismatch will be addressed in continuing research and may shed light on ecological and evolutionary patterns among detritivores which encounter new resources. As such, there are implications for both conservation and exotic species biology."

The study, "A Comparison of Dung Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Attraction to Native and Exotic Mammal Dung," appears here in the latest edition of Environmental Entomology.

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