Wednesday 24 March 2010

Onthophagus taurus

It's pretty common knowledge that the cheetah is the fastest animal on earth but do you know which animal is the strongest - the Jeff Capes of the jungle? Perhaps the mule? Or the carthorse? Think smaller. Think dung beetle.
According to researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, the little trooper's strength is off the Richter. They can pull a load 1,141 times its own body weight - the equivalent of an average person pulling six fully laden double decker buses.
I also remember once hearing that beetles can be frozen in ice and trot out alive. The Russian army play drinking games based on this phenom. Every soldier takes a beetle, freezes it in an ice cube and then they wait. Whoever's beetle busts out first dodges the trip to the (submarine) bar. All this leads me to conclude that dung beetles will inherit the Earth. Sorry ants.

Via PA

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