# What Do Dung Beetles Eat?

> What dung beetles eat: Coprophagous (animal dung), foraging style, and seasonal shifts in Grasslands, farmland, forests, and deserts.

- **Species:** Dung Beetle (*Scarabaeus sacer*)
- **Conservation status:** Least Concern
- **Diet:** Coprophagous (animal dung)
- **Habitat:** Grasslands, farmland, forests, and deserts
- **Lifespan:** Around 1 to 3 years
- **Canonical HTML:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/dung-beetle/what-do-dung-beetle-eat/
- **Parent profile:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/dung-beetle/
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-16

## Quick answer

Dung beetles are beetles that feed on animal droppings, and many are famous for rolling dung into balls and pushing them away to bury as food or a brood chamber. They are remarkably strong for their size and play a vital role in recycling waste, improving soil, and reducing pests. Found on every continent except Antarctica, dung beetles include species that roll, tunnel, or simply dwell in dung.

## Who should skip this page

Skip this if you need a captive feeding plan from a veterinarian. This page is wild diet, not a pet-care sheet.

## Rollers, tunnelers, and dwellers

Dung beetles use dung in different ways depending on the species. Rollers shape dung into balls and push them away to bury, tunnelers dig down beneath a dung pat to store it, and dwellers simply live within the dung itself. The rolling species are the most famous, navigating in straight lines sometimes using the sun, the moon, or even the band of the Milky Way.

## Help protect the Dung Beetle

Even familiar animals lose ground as wild habitat keeps shrinking worldwide.

[Donate to wildlife protection](https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/donate/)

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Source: Global Animal Guide (https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/dung-beetle/what-do-dung-beetle-eat/). Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial reuse with attribution.