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Tiny Dung Beetle Ping-Pongs Up Termite Mound

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The mound the termites abandoned might not look much of a threat, but to a dung beetle, it’s a mountain whose slopes are covered with pitfall traps. A dung beetle is a walnut-sized package of determination, but he is also upside down pushing backwards so he can’t see where he is going.

TRANSCRIPT

- [Narrator] The mound that the termites abandoned might not look much of a threat, but to a dung beetle, it's a mountain, whose slopes are covered with pitfall traps.

The dung beetle is a walnut-sized package of determination, but he is also upside down pushing backwards, so he can't see where he's going.

Dung beetles are nothing if not tenacious, and for an animal that the ancient Egyptians thought so powerful that it rolled the sun around the Earth, this is a temporary setback, not a crisis.

The termite mound might be a magnificent testament to insect social housing, but in some ways, it's more like a pinball machine.

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