Natural Curiosities: Turn Right at Orion’s Belt

Backcountry wanderers do not typically suffer the misfortune of being so lost in the wilderness that navigation by the stars is necessary. Good thing, because few of us have a clue how to do that. We may have a loose idea of where Polaris is supposed to be (north, duh), but one of the key rules of backcountry camping is to know where you are before it gets dark, so unless you’re a sailor, celestial navigation is for most merely a curiosity.

If you’re a South African dung beetle, however, it can be a matter of life or death.

Scientists have long known that some bird species can navigate by the stars, but few expected we’d eventually discover that navigators from every corner of the animal kingdom do the same. And fewer still expected that level of stellar awareness from the little dung beetle, toiling away rolling balls of poop across the arid ground of Africa, seemingly oblivious to the arc of constellations