
Dung Beetles Navigate Via the Milky Way, First Known in Animal Kingdom - lelf
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/24/dung-beetles-navigate-via-the-milky-way-an-animal-kingdom-first/
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agentzebra
Paper
[http://taste.versailles.inra.fr/AgroParisTech/cours/M1/Neuro...](http://taste.versailles.inra.fr/AgroParisTech/cours/M1/Neurobio_Behav/2012/biblio_2012/neuro/Curr%20Biol%20Dacke%20et%20al%20-%20advance%20publication%20%5B2013%5D.pdf)

<…> Even on clear moonless nights, many beetles still manage to orientate
along straight paths. This led us to hypothesize that dung beetles exploit the
starry sky for orientation, a feat that has, to our knowledge, never been
demonstrated in an insect. Here, we show that dung beetles transport their
dung balls along straight paths under a starlit sky but lose this ability
under overcast conditions. In a planetarium, the beetles orientate equally
well when rolling under a full starlit sky as when only the Milky Way is
present. The use of this bidirectional celestial cue for orientation has been
proposed for vertebrates, spiders, and insects, but never proven. This finding
represents the first convincing demonstration for the use of the starry sky
for orientation in insects and provides the first documented use of the Milky
Way for orientation in the animal kingdom.

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hereonbusiness
"Lastly, to confirm the Milky Way results, the team put little cardboard hats
on the study beetles’ heads, blocking their view of the sky. Those beetles
just rolled around and around aimlessly"

Sounds like they had a good time doing this research.

~~~
bchar
The last bit gave me a chuckle:

> As for the beetles themselves, they were “very easy to work with,” he added.
> “You can do anything you want to them, and they just keep on rolling.”

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FoeNyx
The researchers won the 2013 Ig Nobel "Joint Prize in Biology and Astronomy"
for this interesting discovery (
[http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/](http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/)
)

~~~
lelf
Oh, thanks. Here is the ceremony:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VG67U2D-gs&feature=player_d...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VG67U2D-gs&feature=player_detailpage#t=1608)

    
    
      “South Aftican Dung Beetles teach us
       that to do good science
       you've got to have /balls/”

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applecore
Actually, they're the second known species to do so in the Animal kingdom.

Humans have looked into the night sky and oriented themselves using the stars.

Although dung beetles have probably been doing it longer.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
This is what first came into my mind also.

If hairless monkeys can evolve to do this, why not dung beetles?

> Although dung beetles have probably been doing it longer.

That isn't clear. I'm sure we've doing it for much longer than 10k years. That
we've always been fascinated with the heavens means that perhaps even other
apes were/are doing this.

~~~
sigzero
First of all, we are not "hairless monkeys". Second, we did not "evolve to do
this". Both of those statements are factually wrong.

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ilaksh
I misread the title and was opening that article expecting to read about dung
beetles in space.

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contextual
Further proof that humans grossly underestimate all other non-human lifeforms.
Parrots reason like three year old children[1], mice feel empathy[2],
elephants grieve[3], birds hold funerals for their dead[4], and now this.

And yet we won't hesitate to deforest natural habitats for yet more highways
and ugly low density housing. And scientists continue to use animals for all
kinds of shockingly inhumane experiments. Over 19 million animals are killed
each year in research in the US alone[5], _and that 's not counting mice._

Even house pets are stolen and used for animal testing[6].

Surely we are the smartest animal on the planet (smart enough to rationalize
_anything_ ), but isn't it more important we be compassionate?

[1] [http://m.livescience.com/22178-parrots-reason-three-year-
old...](http://m.livescience.com/22178-parrots-reason-three-year-olds.html)
[2] [http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/researchers-say-mice-
feel...](http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/researchers-say-mice-feel-empathy-
with-peers/) [3] [http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/06/when-doves-cry-
scientific-a...](http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/06/when-doves-cry-scientific-
american-explores-grief-in-animals) [4]
[http://news.discovery.com/animals/birds-hold-avian-
funerals-...](http://news.discovery.com/animals/birds-hold-avian-funerals-for-
their-dead-120905.htm) [5] [http://www.statisticbrain.com/animal-testing-
statistics/](http://www.statisticbrain.com/animal-testing-statistics/) [6]
[http://www.stolenpets.com/about.htm](http://www.stolenpets.com/about.htm)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
> And yet we won't hesitate to deforest natural habitats for yet more highways
> and ugly low density housing. And scientists continue to use animals for all
> kinds of shockingly inhumane experiments. Over 19 million animals are killed
> each year in research in the US alone[5], and that's not counting mice.

We aren't the only species on the planet that engages in genocide of other
species. Plenty of animals, large and small, are predators of other animals as
well as habitat destroyers. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if we someday find
an animal that performs tests on other animals (other than us, that is). In
nature, it is every species for itself, it is like that extreme form of
capitalism that libertarians craze after.

It is egotistical to think that we some how exist outside of our ecosystem,
with god like choices to make. Nature will throw things back into balance one
way or the other, likely to our detriment.

~~~
jadyoyster
Regarding the extreme capitalism: not even every species, every individual
organism's genes.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Natural selection is quite greedy in general: consume resources, or be
consumed as a resource! We've grown rich enough to think a bit more forward,
which is where conservation comes in, but to think that any of those animals
are less selfish than us is crazy.

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amerika_blog
I thought they used a TRS-80:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dung_Beetles_%28video_game%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dung_Beetles_%28video_game%29)

