The pieces of dung are dried, lacquered, and sometimes decorated with map pins.

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"I think night-flying moths and night-flying locusts could benefit from using a star compass similar to the one that the dung beetles are using, " she said.

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They are also testing paper made of fruits, vegetables and dung from other animals.

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The Maasai are a traditional herding people who have no electricity or running water and live in huts made of dung.

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The homes of the Himba, who number between 30, 000 and 50, 000, are round structures constructed of sapling posts, bound together to form a domed roof which is plastered in mud and dung.

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