What motivated Google's choice of a dung beetle as its logo for today?
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (325696)
Rockingham, Australia
February 18, 2018 9:26pm CST
Today’s Google icon is of a dung beetle winning an event at the Winter Olympics. An unlikely combination but I went looking to find out more about dung beetles as they are now an integral part of Australian agriculture.
Dung beetles feed partly or exclusively on dung and can bury over 250 times its own weight in a night. Some species are rollers and roll dung into balls used as food or breeding chambers; other are tunnelers and bury the dung wherever they find it and some simply live in manure.
The Australian Dung Beetle Project was the brainchild of Dr George Bornemissza of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and formed to try to control the polluting effects of cattle dung.
Native Australian dung beetles were used to the hard, dry, fibrous faeces of kangaroos and the like. They had no interest in cow dung which remained on the soil surface causing future pasture to be rank and unpalatable. The dung also provided a breeding ground for various species of pests and parasitic worms.
Various species of foreign dung beetles were introduced and the results have been very satisfactory, improving pasture condition and reducing the number of flies and worms. You can buy started kits of 5,000 beetles but I couldn’t find a price.
Two things are particularly intriguing to be me. The beetles roll the balls with their hind legs, walking backwards on their front legs. Can you see him standing on his head in the photo? And why do you think Google made this choice?
And Wikipedia tells me the nocturnal African dung beetle (Scarabaeus satyrus) orients itself and navigates using the Milky Way. It is the only known non-human animal to do so but how they work these things out is beyond me.
Photo courtesy: Clinton & Charles Robertson from RAF Lakenheath, UK & San Marcos, TX, USA & UK (Dung Beetle Uploaded by Jacopo Werther) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)].
19 people like this
13 responses
@changjiangzhibin89 (16533)
• China
19 Feb 18
It amazes me that the nocturnal African dung beetle can use the Milky Way to orient itself .Native Australian dung beetles are very particular about the faeces.
3 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29242)
• Eugene, Oregon
20 Feb 18
@JudyEv Are the natives getting along with those immigrants?
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325696)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Feb 18
@JamesHxstatic I think they're pretty laid back about it all - much like the human species here.
2 people like this
@snowy22315 (169914)
• United States
19 Feb 18
I must confess I knew net to nothing about the dung beetle! Thanks for enlightening us..
2 people like this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
19 Feb 18
does seem odd but it is a fun image
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@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
19 Feb 18
@JudyEv yes, quite a good method - probably easier in some ways
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@JudyEv (325696)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Feb 18
@arthurchappell And you're further from the smell.
1 person likes this
@xFiacre (12594)
• Ireland
19 Feb 18
@judyev Ah yes, the dung beetle. I am ready to read this now, and I recall dung beetles being kept at my school in Africa in the biology lab. Interesting creatures who really did go through and extraordinary quantity of pooop in a day. Antelope, I believe was a firm favourite, so long as it wasn't too firm.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325696)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Feb 18
They imported African ones to Australia as they are better able to deal with soft poop. I love the way they use their back legs to roll the balls - and I've just worked out why they use their back ends. They don't like the smell so near their noses!!! Up here (taps head) for thinking!
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
19 Feb 18
They are quite fascinating the way the roll the dung which is much bigger than they are!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325696)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Feb 18
And with their hind legs - but I've worked out why that is. They don't like the smell.
@JamesHxstatic (29242)
• Eugene, Oregon
20 Feb 18
The Milky Way? That is incredible. What strange little animals these are!
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
19 Feb 18
Cow manure is used as fertilizer.
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43421)
• Denver, Colorado
23 Feb 18
They navigate by the Milky Way? How cool! Very interesting.