Seasonal Variations in Dung Beetle (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) Assemblage in Wildlife and Wildlife–Livestock Systems in North‐Eastern Namibia

ABSTRACT The study emphasises the importance of understanding the seasonal variations in dung beetle assemblages for monitoring ecosystem changes. The sampling of dung beetles was done on a monthly basis for 1 year over the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Dung beetles were sampled using baited pitfall traps that were designed from 1 L white plastic containers placed at intervals of 100 m along a distance of 1.1 km. The NMDS ordination was used to visualise patterns of species composition and abundance of the dung beetles in the four seasons. A total of 47,818 individuals belonging to 44 species were collected in all four different seasons. The greatest abundance was obtained in summer ( n = 33,496) in both wildlife and wildlife–livestock systems, and least abundance was reported in winter ( n = 1180). In wildlife, summer had the highest species diversity ( H ′ = 3.538), autumn ( H ′ = 2.752), spring ( H ′ = 2.611) and winter ( H ′ = 1.629). For the wildlife–livestock system, summer had the highest ( H ′ = 3.084), autumn ( H ′ = 2.544), spring ( H ′ = 2.113) and winter recording the lowest diversity ( H ′ = 1.313). The NMDS ordination demonstrated that the species composition was dissimilar in all four seasons. This study contributed valuable insight to the knowledge gap on how different seasonal variations influence dung beetle assemblages and offered applied implications for conservation strategies and ecosystem management in both wildlife and wildlife–livestock systems of Namibia.