Backing the Trailer In

The title should say it all;)  Warning fellow readers and bloggers.  I had a little fun with the topic.  If you're eating, you may not want to read further. Today it's all about the Dung Beetle found near Montosa Canyon and how poo transforms our lives.

I imagine rolling up poo in a ball and don't think it would be anything like for example,  working with clay.  In fact, I don't think I'd like this at all.   But that doesn't stop the cool factor of this beetle.

So why is this so fascinating?  I know my sister one time was cooking in the kitchen.  At the time my nephews and nieces were learning how to potty train.  Any parent knows that when kids are not heard, there is something going on.  She turned the stove off and went to the bathroom where my niece was potty training......

My young nephew was with his sister using her poop to draw on the wall.  It was like a brown crayon!  Well this made my sister sick and then scream to "PUT DOWN THE POOP!"

Dogs like to eat it.  So why do people have such a dislike for something we all naturally do?  I even read the story "Everyone Poops"("Todos Hacemos Caca") to my students.  A story that has transformed their lives:)  Of course it comes in the Spanish language and utilizes a very important verb that is considered appropriately a "Go Go" verb in the present tense.  "Hacer" means "to make" or "to do".  To say "I make" in Spanish is "Hago"(pronounced "ah-go").  Simply explained, I can make cookies or I can do homework or I can make poop.  That's where this informative story comes handy.  The faces are priceless and there's a lot of laughter and learning going on.  I try to make their first irregular verb conjugation a memorable experience.  Teaching can be boring or it can transform a person's life. And remember teaching adults is different than teaching teenagers:)  My methods may seem strange but they work:)  This past year all of my students received passing AP scores for free college credit.  I'm a proud papa and I continue to believe that if you introduce a "little poo" into a high school lesson, it can transform.....

....into a ball of something we may all find useful down the road.  So back to the Dung Beetles:) Hopefully you haven't lost your ability to eat breakfast.  Are you still there?:) Anyhoo, I had NO idea that they lived here in Arizona.  A bunch of excited observers came running and shouted, "Have you seen ALL of the dung beetles crossing the road???!!!!  It is SO cool!"   I didn't even have to drink a second cup of coffee to run for this poo.  It was right there!  Wow!

Many dung beetles, known as rollers, are noted for rolling dung into round balls, which are used as a food source or brooding chambers. Other dung beetles, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in manure. Imagine that.....living in poo.

The photos prove that they live here near the Santa Rita mountains. I didn't have to travel to exotic parts of the world to find these amazing bugs.  They were found by the cattle grills on the road near Montosa Canyon...near Tucson.  I'm a huge wildlife fan and this was a treat to see.  More tomorrow...