In praise of shit shovellers

Leoncio Urabayen (La tierra humanizada, 1949) says that the dung beetle (escarabajo pelotero) is to a hive of bees as the pyramids are to the Empire State. This is unfair:

• “The American Institute of Biological Sciences reports that dung beetles save the United States cattle industry an estimated US$380 million annually through burying above-ground livestock feces.“
• A history of the earth and animated nature (1810, based on Goldsmith, De Buffon and others) says dung beetles are so strong they can move a brass candlestick placed over them.
• Zeus changed the breeding season of eagles so as not to annoy a dung beetle.

Anything that in fierce sunshine rolls someone else’s excrement backwards over large distances using its hind legs in order to bury it is deserving of respect.

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