Original subtitles

The vast open wilderness of South Africa

is home to some of the world's most iconic animals,

from small hoofstock like the speedy impala to giant grazers

like the meandering elephant.

Then, there are the long-necked giraffes.

And who could forget about the herding rhinos?

These creatures are constantly doing

two things on a daily basis.

The first is eating.

And the second, which you probably have already guessed,

is pooping.

But where does all this poop go?

There are no toilets on the Savannah to flush it down.

So what happens after Dumbo drops a dump

truck load of digested plants?

Today, we aim to answer that question by exploring

the wilds of Tuinskloof.

Managed by the Reserve Protection Agency,

this 13-hectare sanctuary just so

happens to be within the range of one very

unique insect that has an affinity

for stinky animal byproducts.

Coyote, what are you doing there?

You guys see what I'm standing in?

Yeah, it looks like, uh, feces.

This is a giant pile of poop.

I'm going to just go ahead and--

Oh, he's touching it!

You know, when in South Africa,

you just roll with it.

And literally today, we're going to be looking

for the thing that rolls pieces of poop, turd rollers

themselves.

Now, I'm guessing that this is hoofstock droppings,

likely impala and kudu.

And that right there--

ugh-- is one rock solid little turd.

Now, I'm not looking for kudu or impala.

I'm actually looking for the insect,

one stinky little insect that loves to roll around in turds.

You guys know what I'm talking about?

Mm, I don't know if I want to know.

Stay tuned.

I have a feeling that if we head up this direction,

we're going to find plenty of them.

Following a trail of turds through the environment

is not something you would typically choose to do

while out on a leisurely hike.

Yet, if you are aiming to have an encounter with a dung

beetle, this is one of the most reliable ways

to track them down.

We skipped from scat pile to scat pile,

examining the freshest of feces with the relentless hope

of happening upon some of these poop-loving professionals.

Oh, man, here's another fresh pile of nuggets.

Look at this.

Likely impala.

It's so fresh that you can still see urine

where the animal also peed.

These are some serious squishers right here.

Look at that.

Oh, yeah!

Zoom in on that.

You see how green that is?

That is all undigested plant matter

that the animal passes through its system

and then squirts out as these delicious little nuggets.

Not delicious for me.

No, no, guys, I am not going to eat a turd.

But the insect we are looking for today loves eating poop.

OK, I'm going to wipe this on Mario.

There we go, buddy.

And we're going to keep walking.

The South African air was filled with fresh steamers,

and that meant that those dirty little dung beetles

would be hot on the turd trail.

I could feel it in each and every step.

Ugh, gross!

And being downwind, I could smell that we were

headed in the right direction.

When sure enough, we rounded a corner

and nearly stepped into one big steaming pile of--

Oh, beetles are right here!

Look at this!

Oh, and look at the size of that ball!

Oh, man, this is great. OK.

Is that their ball?

That is their ball

right there, right in the middle of those other turds.

And we've got two dung beetles right here in front of us.

Wow.

Well, we've been searching for a while.

It's pretty dry, but these guys have already

made themselves a compact ball.

Now, look at that.

He's inspecting the environment, finding his line of sight.

And there you go.

Off to the races.

He's going to continue to push this giant ball

of compacted turds.

Now, I don't want to interrupt this beetle because he's

at work, but this one here is likely

either a female or a stealer.

And I'll get into that in a second.

But what I want to do is actually pick this beetle up.

Come here, buddy.

Wow.

Look at that.

Its exoskeleton is incredibly rigid,

and its feet are very strong.

Now, I don't know if they bite.

I guess we'll find out here in a second.

Let me see.

Do you bite?

No, doesn't bite.

That's good news for me. Can you see it OK?

Yeah. Whoa.

It's hard to hold on to because they're so strong.

I'm just going to let it walk around in my hands here.

Now, there are over 6,000 dung beetle species worldwide.

And the only continent that you will not find this insect

is in Antarctica.

This is the Addo dung beetle, which is indigenous to only

this area here in South Africa.

When we're talking about dung beetle species,

there are several different types.

This one specifically is what we would consider a roller.

So a roller actually rolls turds around

from one spot to the next.

Then, you also have the dwellers.

Dwellers literally stay in one spot

and live in a pile of turds.

You also have the burrowers, which will roll a ball of poop

somewhere and actually build a burrow underneath it.

And then you have the stealers, which will steal

turds from other dung beetles.

I'm pretty sure that this one is both a roller and a stealer,

because I caught this guy trying to steal

the turd that's actually rolling underneath your feet

right now, Mark.

Ah, I thought I smelled something!

Causing a little traffic jam there, buddy.

I was like, I got a whiff of something.

I was like, where did the ball-- oh, it's right by my shoe.

And you know what?

That beetle will not stop for you, Mark.

He is on a determined mission to get that ball of poop

back to its burrow.

Now, when it comes to dung beetles,

they're actually very specific as to what kind of turds

they will eat.

They primarily feast on herbivore and omnivore turds,

but this species specifically I'm

guessing feeds on kudu and impala turds,

but I know for a fact that they also feast on elephant dung.

Now, there are no elephants in this area, so, like I said,

the kudu and the impala turds we saw

earlier are certainly fair opportunity for having a feast.

Hey, Mario, is "turd" the scientific term

we want to use?

Uh, turd, poop, dung, feces.

Animal scat.

Yes, no matter how you choose to phrase it--

I like to call them turds.

And these creatures, as gross as it is to say it,

love to eat turds.

Now, they feast on the turds.

They actually will line the inside of their burrows

with turds.

Their whole world revolves around turds.

And they prefer a fresh turd.

Right now, it's pretty dry out, so we actually had some trouble

finding these beetles.

But we found a fresh pile of kudu scat,

and sure enough, with it came some dung beetles.

Super cool, right?

I got a fun little game.

Yeah?

Everybody at home should

watch this video again and count how many

times you say the word "turd."

You know, I have said the word "turd"

more times today and more so in this episode than ever before.

I've touched turds today.

We've got beetles eating turds.

We've got beetles rolling turds.

It is certainly a turd sandwich of an episode.

Turd. Turds.

Turd. Turds.

Turd. Turd.

Turds. Turd.

Turds. Turds.

Turds. Turds.

Turds. Turds.

Turds. Turds.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turds. Turds.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turds. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turds.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turds.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turd.

Turd. Turds.

Man.

My hands don't smell like anything, which is good.

And I keep calling these a stinky little insect,

but it doesn't smell like anything.

Talk to me, buddy.

Do you have poop breath?

No poop breath on this guy.

Now, what's really fascinating about these insects is

that while they may seem like simple creatures that are

simply eating poop, they are very much in tune

with the environment.

They're actually using UV rays from the sun

to help them navigate.

Now, at night, when there isn't any sun out,

scientists believe that they use these stars to navigate

the environment as they're aiming to push their turd ball

back to their burrow.

And this one that we have just here off to our side here

that's just continuously pushing its turd down this trail

is completely on a straight line.

It will do everything it can to stay on course

and make sure that that turd ball gets back to its burrow.

Speaking of the turd ball, how about

we get back to the turd ball?

Yeah, let's check this out.

I'm going to bring this little beetle back over here.

Oh, I almost stepped on it.

Watch out, Mark. The big turd balls right here.

Now, the beetle will come back and find this.

I'm going to actually pick it up for a second.

Look at that. Wow.

Whoa.

It is heavy.

Look at that.

Oh, I'm going to regret this.

That is a compacted ball of herbivore poop right there.

Oh, it's kind of wet!

It's heavy, right?

Well, the more moist the poop is,

the better it is for the beetles.

Now, watch what's going to happen.

As soon as the beetle picks back up the scent of this turd--

they have an incredible sense of smell--

he's going to climb back up on top of it,

spin around in a circle, regain its line of sight,

and then plop back down and use its hind legs to push the turd.

Here we go.

Just like I said.

Watch this.

Climbs up on top.

Here we go.

Do your spin.

Line of sight is acquired.

And, boom, off to the races.

Now, pound-for-pound, this is one of the strongest insect

species in the world, capable of pushing things almost 1,000

times their own body weight.

That's like me weighing 150 pounds,

pushing six eight-ton buses.

Isn't that crazy?

That is one powerful creature.

Now, look.

It's on this hillside and it's thinking,

I'm not going to get up that, but it will just

keep moving along the edge of this ridge

until it finds its way back to its burrow.

Well, this is pretty fascinating.

Searching amongst the South African terrain

for turds that ultimately led us to the one

and only dung beetle.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

Now, it's possible that this is either a female

or what we call a stealer.

And a stealer will let this beetle do all of the work,

and then once it gets close to a burrow,

actually steal the turd ball away from it.

Man, it's determined.

Now, where is this ball going?

Do we know where it's headed?

You know, I have no clue

where the burrow is located.

And you can see it's trying to get up this hill side,

and it's not making much progress.

But you'll notice we moved from this pathway

now up to this ridge-line.

And it's slowly figuring out that, this direction,

I can move in.

And I'm trying not to interfere with the movement at all.

I feel like, man, I want to help you out, buddy.

Let me just pick up this turd, walk around, and try

to find a burrow for you, but you have to let the animal

figure it out on its own. Oh!

And it lost some ground there. Hang on a second.

Mario, step back for a second.

I just want to give people some reference.

So that's where we started--

Yeah.

- where your backpack is.

There's my backpack.

We came all this distance to this mark.

This little following beetle is-- oh, here's the turd.

Oh, look, the stealer may be coming

in to try to get the turd away.

And you notice those little antenna up front.

Those are chemical receptors that help them.

You thief!

I know, right?

Oh, he's made the move at this point.

Wow.

We've got a switch-over right there.

That's a perfect example of a stealer coming in and thieving

a turd ball away from one beetle that has done

an incredible amount of work.

Did this one quit?

No, it didn't quit.

What it's using are those little antenna up front.

They kind of look like little mittens.

And those are chemical receptors which

allow them to sense the environment which help them

find the turds, and, in this case,

find his turd ball, which has been stolen

away by this stealer beetle.

Look, it's taking it a different direction.

It is.

It is now going this direction. Oh!

And look at that.

It stumbled over this stick, so now

this little guy has got the opportunity

to get this turd ball back. You can do it, buddy.

This is your chance.

Make a break!

Oh, no!

The stealer's back up on top.

And watch.

He's going to climb up on top of the turd ball,

get its bearings, and there's a good chance-- you see,

it's moving this direction.

It's possible then that this beetle

has a burrow that's elsewhere.

Competing for the same ball of poo.

That's right.

So my theory that maybe one was a male and one is a female

has now been disproven.

It is definitely two males.

And this one's likely taking this turd ball back to his lady

friend in a burrow somewhere, that

is unless this one, who's coming in for the fight--

look at that.

Using those front grappling legs to battle down the beetle.

Nope, didn't get it that time.

Man, this is intense.

You can almost, like, do a play-by-play.

You could call play-by-play with this.

Maybe we should try that.

Should we go into-- this is the narration, live in the field

of dung beetles duking it out--

Yeah, let's do it.

- for a freshly rolled ball of turds.

OK, we got a name them, though.

OK.

I say we name them Hercules and Arnold.

OK, go for it.

So we're going to call this one Hercules,

and this one Arnold.

These beetles are tough, folks.

They are strong.

And the race is on.

Who is going to win the right to this giant ball

of herbivore turd?

And every time they fall off the ball,

they have to regain their line of sight

and continue trekking on.

What happened to Arnold?

He looks tuckered out.

Arnold may have exhausted himself,

because Hercules has regained the turd ball

and is continuing to head in that direction.

Yet, here comes Arnold back into the race,

thinking-- oh, where are you going?

Arnold, wrong direction.

The turd's in the other direction.

It's possible that he may have given up.

There does come a point when a beetle exhausts itself

and says, OK, I'm not going to be able to take this turd ball

away from my competitor and I'm just going to call it a day

and maybe make my own turd ball, at that point.

But as you can see, Hercules over here

has got a long trek up this hillside.

And he's not going to make it with all these acacia spikes.

There's no way he's getting through that.

How do you know?

Uh, because--

You can do it, you can do it.

I'm rooting for Arnold.

You're rooting for Arnold?

Arnold was the original.

That's right, Hercules has taken over at this point.

Oh, Hercules.

Arnold, come on.

Turn around, buddy. Not looking good.

He's doing it. He's turning around.

I think he got the scent.

You're back in the race, buddy.

You can do it.

Here, Hercules is having some troubles.

Oh, man, look at that.

He is ready to go.

He sees his opportunity.

Well, Hercules is clearly struggling by that stick.

Now, I wonder what would happen if--

I'm going to remove this stick and see

how it changes the game.

All right, and they're off.

Oh!

It's a double rollover!

Hercules back up on top of the turd ball,

checking his line of sight.

Arnold is down on his back.

And Hercules has regained position,

but he's going a different direction than he was before.

What is the thinking behind this beetle's strategy?

Arnold getting back in the game.

And he is making his move for it,

sees that Hercules is struggling and he's thinking to himself,

this could be my chance.

I need that ball of turd so I can take it back to my burrow

and impress my lady friend.

Nothing says impressive like a giant ball of poop.

Come on, Hercules. You've got this one, buddy.

Whoa! Whoa!

Anyone's game now.

Fumble-rooski.

Fumble-rooski.

Oh!

Arnold is about to make his move.

Look at that.

They're going to duke it out.

Arnold's got the inside track.

Oh, but he lost it in the weeds.

Here comes Hercules.

Oh, oh!

Arnold made the move over the top.

Oh, man.

Hercules is off the trail.

Here comes Arnold.

He's going to get the turd ball.

Go, go, go.

Arnold is about to make his move.

You can see him looking for it.

It's literally right there!

It's right there, dude!

Look at Hercules.

Hercules is just like-- he's completely lost at this point.

Oh, he's coming back.

Uh oh.

He's like, where is that ball of poop?

Arnold!

Arnold, you better hurry, buddy.

Here comes Hercules.

Oh, Hercules has got his sight on it.

Here he goes.

You got it.

Oh, so close!

Hercules is about to take control.

Oh!

And Hercules has reclaimed the giant ball of poop.

Well, I would say we clearly have a winner, folks.

Hercules is the dominant beetle in this situation

and has reclaimed his throne as king of the turd ball.

Oh, oh!

Look at this, look at this!

You got something?

Look at that!

That's a stag beetle!

Mario!

Yeah?

I got a stag beetle!

OK.

Bring that little bug container up here!

We got to film with this! OK.

Yeah, I'll give him the container.

You got it in your backpack?

Yep.

That's a stag beetle,

some sort of stag beetle.

There's many different species.

Wow!

Try to climb up here!

Just filming b-roll, getting these extra shots,

and sure enough, come around the backside of this log,

and there is an enormous beetle.

I'm just going to go ahead and pick it up.

OK!

Come here, buddy.

Oh, don't get pinched, don't get pinched.

Wow, he's strong!

Got it.

Whoa!

That's crazy.

You got him?

Wow.

Yeah, check this out.

You guys can see this--

I was showing you b-roll shots.

This environment's really tough to walk around in,

but this is perfect beetle territory

with all this decomposing wood.

Here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Put a-- oh, just grab like a piece of moss or something.

Yeah, that's perfect.

Oh, good thing we had this little bug carrier with us.

In you go, buddy.

Oh, he's pinching on to it!

Nice! You got it?

Dude, great find.

Yeah!

Yeah, a stag beetle!

Nice!

We'll bring it down!

And let's get a little scene with it.

All right, I'm going to put it in my backpack.

Yeah.

Keep it safe.

Wow.

That's a-- I consider it a big one, right?

That's big.

Great job, dude!

All right, down we go.

Yes!

Stag beetle!

This is so cool.

Definitely a creature that we have not

featured on the channel before.

All right, let's find a good spot to set up

and then we'll get a scene.

Oh, check this out, Mark.

Yeah, let me see it.

This thing is super cool.

Look at that.

Oh, whoa!

Yeah, right?

Check that out.

Here, pull it out of the container real quick.

Watch your fingers, though.

Watch your fingers.

Here, he's kind of tangled up inside of this.

Oh, oh, oh. Hold on there, buddy.

Oh, nice! - Look at that.

Right?

Great stag.

Pretty cool.

Oh, oh, oh!

All right.

Here, let's just get him back into the container.

Grab him by the thorax there, Mario.

You want me to put the whole thing?

No, no, no, just put him in like that

because he's just going to grip on to that stuff.

Sweet.

OK, cool.

I just want to be on that for coming down the hillside.

- Nice! - Dude.

Dude!

Nice climbing, Mario.

That was awesome.

I guess filming b-roll pays off.

And now we're going to get another episode.

This is great.

All right, cool.

All right, well, let's go over here into the light.

Yeah, better light.

Yep.

Woo!

Cool.

This is a good spot.

Much better light.

Super dark up there in the forest.

All right, I'm going to set this down and take the bug out.

I put a little leaf in there so it wouldn't bounce

around when I was walking. Yeah, for the reveal?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You ready?

Yeah. - All right, here we go.

Oh, he's hanging on.

There we go, buddy.

Oh, yeah, grip on to that leaf.

There we go.

Oh, man.

Oh, what a big guy!

Whoa!

You can really see it now.

Right?

All right, now, I'm going to get that leaf off of there.

Come on, let go of that leaf.

Oh, they are so strong.

Look at that.

I can just rip that leaf apart.

Man.

And it just shreds up in the beetle's--

He's not letting go of that leaf.

There we go, there we go.

Those little legs are like grappling hooks.

So what I'm going to do is place it on my finger.

Maybe it will just stay right there.

It's going to hook on.

And hopefully, we can get this scene.

You gonna hold on?

Oh, balancing act.

Here, get this little leg out.

There we go.

Now he's happy.

Now, the male stag beetles are much larger and much

more defined than the females.

This is-- ow!

No pinching.

This is without question a male.

Now, there are many species of stag beetles.

And I said this to the GoPro when

I was up there catching it, I'm not sure exactly

which species this is.

We're going to have to look it up.

But it is without question a stag needle of some sort.

Now, they get that name-- oh, oh, oh, come here!

Oh, he's hooking on again.

They get that name from those front mandibles.

If you zoom in on them there, Mario,

you can see that they almost look

like the antlers of a deer.

They look very intimidating, right?

And you may be thinking to yourself, wow,

I bet this beetle can give you a pretty powerful pinch.

Let's see how bad the pinch of the stag beetle really is.

Are you guys ready?

If you're ready.

Oh, you're just going right for it!

I'm going right for it, but I'll

give you the classic intro. Are you ready?

All right.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

And I'm about to enter the pinch zone with the stag beetle.

One, two, three.

He's pinched on pretty good there, but not powerful enough

to break skin.

Now actually, what will get you more

than the pinchers is the little grappling hook-like legs.

Go ahead and zoom in there.

They have all these tiny hooks that

almost look like fish hooks.

And when they grapple on to your skin,

they dig in when you try to pull the insect off of you.

It just locks in place, and that's

actually more painful than the mandible pinch.

It appears as if they would use those mandibles to catch

and kill their prey, to crush it, to pinch it,

but these insects are actually herbivores.

They eat nectar and fruits.

Now, during the breeding season, they use those stags

for not only display but also to battle

against other males for the rights to a breeding territory.

The body design of this insect is just so cool.

And as you guys know, insects break

down into three parts; the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.

And if I turn the beetle up like this, look at its head.

Almost appears as if it's wearing a helmet.

And when you look at those mandibles,

you can see why this is such an intimidating little insect.

Now, look off to the side here.

You see these little antenna?

It almost appears as if their fingers just at the tip.

Those are little chemical sensory organs that help them

investigate their environment.

If I also had the beetle like this,

and you zoom in real tight, you could

see all these goldish hairs running over

the course of the exoskeleton.

Holding the beetle like this, I actually

have to exert quite a bit of power

because of how strong this insect is.

Now, pound-for-pound, the stag beetle

is one of the most powerful insects on the planet.

Now, the exoskeleton is incredibly rigid,

really strong, really hard.

It's like armor plating.

It'd be very tough to squish this beetle.

And they are actually capable of flying.

Can you see these two protective shields over the abdomen?

There are actually wings underneath there.

Now, because this insect is so heavily-bodied,

it cannot fly long distances.

But if it needs to move from spot to spot quickly,

it can do that, of course, oftentimes to escape something

like a predator or to move from territory to territory

during breeding season.

And you can see it's just investigating my arm right now

and using those grappling hook-like appendages

to hold on.

Now, this time of year between September and October,

you will see these beetles moving

about, getting ready for breeding season,

but they die shortly after.

They actually only have a lifespan of about a year

from larva, or grub state, to adult when

they emerge and then breed.

There are a number of different beetle species

that live here in Japan.

In fact, beetles are considered little cultural icons.

People collect beetles.

People trade beetles.

They are highly regarded in Japanese culture

as just this cool little insect that

only comes out once a year.

And people certainly admire them for what they are.

Pretty cool, right?

Oh, yeah.

Man, what an awesome little bug.

All right, well, let's get this guy back up into the underbrush

so he can continue his day searching for nectar.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.