Good Dung Beetle Information

May 4, 2009

Finally, the truth about why pre-packaged coffee is so wretched!

And what a place to find this important

information: in a radio interview with an

academic dung beetle specialist!

The the farming movement, subject of dung beetles

seems to attract poseurs as surely as a pile of

scat in a healthy eco-system attracts dung

beetles.

It was a welcome surprise to get some REALLY

great dung beetle stories and important dung

beetle information from NPR (of all places)

today (at least today in West Virginia),

including insider information on how Australia

pumped up their pasture dung beetles without

impacting their woodland beetles.

You can hear the 37 minute interview with

biologist Emlen, a dung beetle expert, at

the link below (it is also available as a podcast

through iTunes):

Fresh Air from WHYY, May 4, 2009 · Underneath the

cow patties in the pasture - and the monkey dung

in the jungle - there is a miniature world of sex

and violence.

Here, ornately decorated beetles armed with horns

fight for survival and sexual dominance.

Emlen, a professor of biology at the University

of Montana, studies them.

Emlen is an expert on the evolution and

development of bizarre or extreme shapes in

insects, and he is particularly interested in

insect weaponry.

Much of his work takes place in a lab, but he has

also had some wild adventures collecting

different families of dung beetles from around

the world.

Emlen joins Fresh Air host Terry Gross to talk

about those adventures - and the surprisingly

interesting creatures at the center of his

research.

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