Frank the dung beetle: “Hey Chuck! Look at the view from up here! I’m on top of the world! I’m king of the mountain!”
Charlie the ant: “Yeah. You’re ballin’.”

Why Dung Beetles Like to Chill on Poop Balls

Though the smell might dissuade you, balls of feces make superbly effective foot coolers.

Dung beetles eat feces. Everyone knows this. But here’s something you didn’t know: newly published research reveals that dung beetles can use spheres of rollable poop-meals as portable AC units — and they’re damn effective ones, at that.

The researchers founddung beetles use their poo-ball as “a mobile thermal refuge” — a portable evaporative unit that cools the beetle slightly as it rolls, and dramatically when it clambers on top of it.

So what’s the secret to ball-cooling? The big one is evaporation. Dung balls are moist. moist. moist. mooooiiiissst…

All told, that means a beetle’s ball of crap helps keep it cool in three ways. First: as a platform, elevated above the scorching desert sand. Second: as a heat sink, drawing heat from the beetle’s forelimbs whenever they start to overheat. And third: as a mobile sand-cooling unit, paving a cooler path for the beetle as it pushes its prize ball of poo from one place to the next.

look at the cute beetle’s little mittens…

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    :3
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    smell might dissuade you, balls of feces make superbly effective foot coolers… newly published research reveals...
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    It looks like he has little gloves on.
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    It is really none of our business as long as the poop balls weren’t stolen from a personal poop ball stash I happen
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