Corowa District Landcare Dung Beetle Project

This project aims to continue and enhance community understanding of the value of dung beetles for sustainable and productive agriculture following past monitoring programs in the Corowa region.  A seasonal gap in dung beetle activity has been identified by scientists, so CDL is addressing the gap through the introduction of farmer nursery colonies of the newly imported, spring active Onthaphagus vacca & Bubus bubalus dung beetles. These farm nurseries have been delivered to farms and in some local schools.  With project partners, Petaurus Education Group and Charles Sturt University’s Dung Beetle’s Ecosystem Engineers, CDL are providing training and on-going support to build capacity of land holders and students to increase awarness and knowledge of dung beetles in our region. We are also monitoring wild dung beetles populations and encourage landholders and school students to get involved.

This project is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

DUNG BEETLE MONITORING & IDENTIFICATION WORKSHOP IN THE MURRAY REGION (ONLINE)

On Thursday 28th October 2021, Corowa District Landcare & Holbrook Landcare hosted a webinar with Dung Beetle Ecosystem Engineer (DBEE) researcher Dr Russ Barrow, who will be discussing the process of monitoring dung beetle activity on your farm and the identification and collection of species.

Please click on the link below to watch the webinar.

THE DUNG BEETLE PROGRAM IN LOCAL SCHOOLS

Our project partner Petaurus Education Group delivered educational activities about dung beetles into some of the local schools. The program was designed to increase awarness and education around dung beetles in Australia, with a focus around the spring active Onthaphagus vacca beetles. As part of the program they produced a great resource book which showcases the students work and is also a great informative resource on dung beetles including their benifits to local livestock producers. This resource is called “ What is it about DUNG BEETLES?”