If there’s one thing we know about grazing animals, it’s that they produce a lot of poo!

Dung is essential for the UK’s 40+ species of dung beetles. Anyone who has ever poo picked after a horse or kicked over a cow pat will have seen holes in the ground underneath. This is where dung beetles have tunnelled and buried dung in the soil to feed their larvae.

Dung beetles provide an essential service to the farming industry by removing the tonnes and tonnes of dung that’s produced each year. In fact, this service has even been valued at £367 million per  year! (Source Dung Beetles Direct). UK Dung Beetles are under severe threat from insecticide wormers and the more natural droppings from grazing animals on nature reserves can support many species.

Dung beetles and the other 250 or so species of insect that live on droppings also provide food for a host of other species, such as birds, bats and badgers.

www.pontcymru.org