(Media Feature) Study on dung beetles offer insight into biodiversity in S'pore

We are excited to have our recent study "Using Metabarcoding Techniques to Map Multiple Dung Beetle-Vertebrate iDNA Networks in a Southeast Asian Forest" being featured in The Straits Times!

The Straits Times article. Published on 24 August 2026.

We demonstrated how dung beetles can be used as sources of vertebrate DNA, where we detected up to 18 native vertebrate species from the forests of Singapore's Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Moving forward, we are exploring a more sustainable approach to obtain traces of vertebrate DNA from the dung beetles without needing to dissect them.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting research!

ST article: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/dung-beetles-bring-poo-sitive-news-about-animals-in-central-catchment-nature-reserve

NTU press release: https://www.ntu.edu.sg/news/detail/dung-beetles-offer-insights-into-biodiversity-in-singapore