In an effort to persuade Mozambique to safeguard Mabu, a team of scientists led by environment journalist Jonah Fisher visited the area and found scores of new species.
“Let me get my magic spoon,” said Dr. Gimo Daniel.
The 36-year-old Mozambican beetle expert seems to enjoy what he does more than other people.
We are hunched over a tiny opening in the ground in the middle of the Mabu forest, not far from our tent. Like nearly everyone else on our expedition, Dr. Daniel’s goal is to discover objects that science has never seen before.
Dr. Daniel laughs and takes out a large plastic tub filled with his own excrement, which he uses as bait for dung beetles.
It smells just how you would expect. Sensitive and hard to ignore.
According to Dr. Daniel, he has already identified what he thinks to be fifteen new species of dung beetles.
They move as quickly as they can because they can smell it up to 50 meters away, he claims. “Brunch is here.”
