The Amazing Dung Beetle

One of the great advantages of living in the middle of nowhere is that you can marvel at the wonders of nature.  There is nothing like seeing a big red kangaroo skip away against the backdrop of a Kimberley thunderstorm. 

It is not just majestic creatures like kangaroos that capture my attention, the humble dung beetle is also an incredible animal in its own way.  Consider how the dung beetle goes to work on the pile of dung shown in the photo below, in this case from a horse. 

In only a few short hours it is converted into basically a powder as shown in the photo below.  This makes life a lot more pleasant for everyone and every animal in their surroundings, importantly reducing the breeding ground for flies in addition to the aesthetic benefits. 

It seems there is a lot more to the dung beetle than meets the eye.  Dung beetles are one of the few animals that use the stars to navigate.  Included in this exclusive club with dung beetles are some birds, seals and humans.  As reported in a recent edition of The Economist, it seems that dung beetles navigate by being able to identify the cluster of stars that forms the Milk Way. 

Further Reading

Stars in their eyes.  How dung beetles navigate.  The Economist, January 26^th – February 1^st 2013, p67. 

  

My Country

“I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains.”

The famous lines from Dorothea Mackellar’s poem “My Country” often runs through my head as I drive around the property.  We do not have any mountain ranges here, but we do have plenty of sweeping plains. 

The strange thing at the moment we seem to have flooding rains and droughts at the same time.  Below is a photo taken at the northern end of the property in the last few days showing a few calves enjoying the green grass. 

 

Incredibly the photo below was taken just one day later showing a fire which had started as a result of a lightning strike.  This was taken towards the southern end of the property where obviously much less rainfall had been received. 

 

Flooding rains are a part of the landscape up here – between Broome and Exmouth in Western Australia is the most cyclone prone coastline in Australia.  Unfortunately droughts are also part of the scene up here as they are for all of Australia.  However, It is very unusual to have both events seemingly occurring at the same time.