@phdthesis{823f043d-1319-4928-8c8a-80a26927e667,
  abstract     = {{Directed movement is fundamental to animal behavior, yet the mechanisms underlying robust orientation remain<br/>incompletely understood. The ball-rolling dung beetle offers a unique model system for investigating these mechanisms<br/>due to its distinctive navigational challenges: maintaining a straight-line trajectory while moving backward<br/>and transporting a dung ball. In this thesis, I investigates oriented behavior in dung beetles, focusing primarily on<br/>the diurnal South African species Kheper lamarcki and its characteristic orientation dance.<br/><br/>I characterize the triggering factors and motifs of the orientation dance - yaw rotations performed atop the<br/>dung ball - demonstrating that these rotation events are triggered by terrain-related disturbances but also occur<br/>spontaneously during unimpeded travel (Paper I). Notably, I indicate that rotation events likely serve to map and<br/>re-map external directional cues onto the beetle’s internal compass, restoring orientation to shifted cue positions<br/>and improving ambiguous directional signals (Paper I; Paper III).<br/><br/>I further demonstrate that dung beetles can maintain their bearings using idiothetic information alone only over<br/>short distances (Paper III). When external cues are available, beetles dynamically weight directional information<br/>from multiple sources, including the position of the sun and wind flow, into a combined directional signal. This<br/>weighting shifts according to cue usefulness, which is reflected in the relative influence of the cues on directional<br/>guidance (Paper II).<br/><br/>Finally, I describe cooperative brood ball transportation in two Sisyphus species, revealing that males control<br/>steering while females contribute passively during flat-ground travel but actively assist in obstacle clearance - a<br/>dynamic collaboration enabling efficient straight-line orientation without a predefined destination (Paper IV).<br/>Together, these findings advance our understanding of how insects maintain robust directional guidance through<br/>the dynamic integration of multimodal cues, the functional role of rotational}},
  author       = {{Dirlik, Elin}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-8104-823-0}},
  keywords     = {{Navigation; Orientation; Compass}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  publisher    = {{Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  title        = {{Getting It Straight: Dynamic Cue Weighting and Orientation Strategies in Ball-Rolling Dung Beetles}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/241936022/Elin_Dirlik_-_WEBB.pdf}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}