{"id":292510,"date":"2025-11-15T04:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T04:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292510\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T04:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T04:34:10","slug":"wildlife-photographer-captures-magical-moment-leopard-meets-a-dung-beetle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292510\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife Photographer Captures Magical Moment Leopard Meets A Dung Beetle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-element-index=\"0\">Among the millions of beetle species on Earth, few are as intriguing as dung beetles \u2014 not for their appearance, but for their namesake behavior. Dung beetles are known for finding and collecting dung, which they roll home to use as a food source for themselves and their young.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"1\">It\u2019s a survival technique that fascinates biologists and casual observers alike.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"2\">But humans aren\u2019t the only ones curious about dung beetles.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"0\">Recently, wildlife photographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nickkleer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Kleer<\/a> was on safari in South Africa\u2019s Mala Mala Game Reserve when he happened upon a unique scene.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"1\">A short way off, a humble dung beetle was dutifully going about his work, rolling a ball of dung across the road. Kleer, however, was not the only one who noticed. The beetle\u2019s activity had also attracted the attention of a nearby leopard, who, ignoring Kleer completely, appeared transfixed by what the insect was up to.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"2\">She just had to move in for a closer look \u2014 a memorable moment Kleer was able to capture on video:<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"0\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedodo.com\/dodowell\/why-does-my-cat-stare-at-me\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trademark curiosity<\/a> of domesticated cats clearly still runs strong in their larger, wild counterparts.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"1\">Fortunately, upon the leopard\u2019s closer inspection, neither the beetle nor his cargo was deemed appealing enough to warrant a taste.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"0\">In images like those above, Kleer\u2019s photography spotlights one of Africa\u2019s most iconic big cats \u2014 animals worthy of cherishing and protecting.<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"1\">According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldlandtrust.org\/species\/mammals\/african-leopard\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Land Trust<\/a>, \u201cAfrican leopards have suffered from habitat loss and fragmentation, increased illegal wildlife trade, decline in prey and poorly managed trophy hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-element-index=\"2\">But thanks to protected reserves like Mala Mala, leopards, dung beetles and countless other animals can still live and explore freely.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedodo.com\/daily-dodo\/photographer-captures-rarely-seen-fun-side-of-worlds-most-elusive-wild-cat\" data-vars-href=\"https:\/\/www.thedodo.com\/daily-dodo\/photographer-captures-rarely-seen-fun-side-of-worlds-most-elusive-wild-cat\" data-vars-ga-action=\"related link\" data-vars-ga-label=\"daily-dodo\/photographer-captures-rarely-seen-fun-side-of-worlds-most-elusive-wild-cat\" data-vars- rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763181250_845_flatten;crop;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\" alt=\"Photographer Captures Rarely Seen Fun Side Of World's Most Elusive Wild Cat\" width=\"116\" height=\"156\" style=\"display:block;height:auto;aspect-ratio:116 \/ 156\" loading=\"eager\"\/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedodo.com\/daily-dodo\/photographer-captures-rarely-seen-fun-side-of-worlds-most-elusive-wild-cat\" data-vars-href=\"https:\/\/www.thedodo.com\/daily-dodo\/photographer-captures-rarely-seen-fun-side-of-worlds-most-elusive-wild-cat\" data-vars-ga-action=\"related link\" data-vars-ga-label=\"daily-dodo\/photographer-captures-rarely-seen-fun-side-of-worlds-most-elusive-wild-cat\" data-vars- rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Photographer Captures Rarely Seen Fun Side Of World&#8217;s Most Elusive Wild Cat\u201cI\u2019d never seen that behavior before &#8230;&#8221;<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among the millions of beetle species on Earth, few are as intriguing as dung beetles \u2014 not for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1926,616,153222,74738,79,615,4798,613,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-292510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-daily-dodo","10":"tag-dung-beetles","11":"tag-leopards","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-standard","14":"tag-stephen-messenger","15":"tag-the-dodo","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}