When African elephants vanish from a landscape, the dung beetles that depend on them don't linger long behind. A 15-year field experiment in Kenya has provided the first definitive proof that one species' extinction can trigger the disappearance of another—a phenomenon called coextinction—and the consequences ripple far beyond the insects themselves.
Starting in 2008, researchers at Mpala, Kenya built fenced exclosures across 10,000 square meters of natural savanna, some designed to keep elephants out and simulate what would happen if the animals were locally extirpated. What unfolded was a cascade of loss. The dung beetles, which spend their lives burying and consuming the feces of larger animals, found their primary food source gone. When the 15-year study concluded, the results were stark: 23% fewer dung beetle species inhabited areas without elephants, along with 67% fewer individual beetles overall.
This matters because dung beetles do more than recycle waste. They are ecological linchpins. By breaking down and burying dung, they prevent fecal matter from accumulating and contaminating soil and water. They reduce populations of biting flies that spread disease. And critically, they cycle nutrients through the savanna ecosystem, keeping soils and entire plant communities alive. Without them, landscapes degrade.
Researcher Finote Gijsman and his team studied 179 Kenyan dung beetle species, measuring which dung types each preferred. They found that dung beetles have a remarkable affinity for elephant dung—it's their food of choice. Using this data, they modeled what would happen if elephants disappeared locally. Their prediction was surprisingly accurate: they forecasted 28% of dung beetle species would vanish, and the actual loss was 23%. Beyond the beetles themselves, the exclosures without elephants showed measurable problems. Dung decomposition slowed. Seed dispersal, another service healthy beetle populations provide, became impaired.
The findings underscore what ecologists call the keystone species concept: certain animals hold ecosystems together in ways disproportionate to their numbers. Elephants are not simply large, iconic animals. They are architects of their environment. Their bodies—and by extension their waste—support entire networks of smaller species and essential ecosystem functions that sustain the landscape.
"Ecosystems are deeply interconnected, and that all organisms play an important role, so changes to or impacts in one component can ripple through the ecosystem with effects that are much greater than the loss of an individual species," Gijsman said. His hope is that people who care about elephants will recognize the profound ecological architecture they maintain, and that protecting elephants means protecting the countless smaller species woven into their world.
The study also raises urgent concerns about insect decline. Biologists Owen Lewis and Eleanor Slade, commenting on the research, noted that the findings "highlight the vulnerability of dung beetles and add to growing concerns about the decline of insect populations." As elephant populations face pressure from poaching and habitat loss across Africa, this research suggests the consequences extend far beyond the loss of a single charismatic species. Entire ecological networks depend on them—networks whose collapse would transform savanna ecosystems in ways we are only beginning to understand.