Dung beetles navigate by the stars - research
6:46 PM Friday Jan 25, 2013
Photo / Emily Baird
Oscar Wilde's famous quote "we are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars" could not be more true of the humble dung beetle.
South African and Swedish scientists have discovered the insects use the Milky Way for orientation - the first time an animal has been proven to use our galaxy to navigate.
Although their eyes are too weak to distinguish individual constellations, the researchers found dung beetles use the gradient of light to dark created by the Milky Way to ensure they keep rolling their balls in a straight line and don't circle back to competitors at the dung pile.
"The dung beetles don't care which direction they're going in - they just need to get away from the bun fight at the poo pile," said Professor Marcus Byrne from Wits University in Johannesburg.
The researchers' findings have been published in the journal Current Biology.
Previous studies from Byrne and his team had proved that dung beetles use the sun, the moon and polarised light for orientation.
'via Blog this'
***
GJ - So who - or rather Who taught them how to do this? I cannot imagine Fred and Elmer sitting on a log and saying to each other - "Look at that cafeteria over there by the sheep pen. If only we could get there - but how?" Then they decide on their own - "We could navigate at night using the Milky Way. That would do it. Much more reliable than Google Maps or GPS. Last time we used GPS, we ran straight into armadillo. Nearly ended our short lives, it did."
