A favourite plaything of many Japanese children, especially boys, is a mini tank like thing with a horn on its head. It fits in the palm of one's hand, is completely harmless yet it is super strong and capable of fighting ferociously. If you guessed it to be a miniaturised electronic toy, you are wrong. The popular 'toy' is an insect named Rhinoceroses Beetle.

July, August is summer vacation for Japanese children. And that is when young children set out on their hunt, digging up the ground for the largest specimens. Between July last week and August first week, tournaments are held where the kids enter their biggest pets for the beetle boxing match! 

The 19th annual Rhinoceros Beetle Sumo Tournament was held recently in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu Island, in the southern region of japan. Over 1000 elementary school-age beetle trainers took part in the event. In addition to sumo matches, it also had a stick-climbing race for the beetles. The race was a sort of first round where the slow and the weak were eliminated. About 15 finalist beetle boxers took part in the final round.

In the most popular version of the game, two different male beetles are placed on a log. The two beetles will battle each other, trying to push each other off the log. The one to stay on the log is the winner.

Now a days, many children of Japan and Korea prefer to buy these bugs from pet stores. Males cost about 120 - 400 Rs. while the females which have no horns, cost much less.  The females are useful only for breeding as they do not fight! Male beetles, greater than 10 centimetres often fetch tens of thousands of dollars.

The boxing tournaments are getting so popular that the Japanese are now prepared to pay a high price for the bigger, foreign beetles. Giant beetles are being imported from as far away as Cameroon, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. According to a wildlife trade monitoring group, nearly 700,000 beetles were imported last year. Several non-governmental groups have issued a warning that the unmonitored influx of foreign beetles for the pet trade poses a risk to Japan's insect ecosystem.

Here is a fascinating info on the unassuming insect. Animal Planet's popular documentary, The Most Extreme, has declared the Rhino Beetle as the  planet's strongest creature! Strength here is defined as one of proportional strength.

A huge African elephant can only carry up to 25% of its own weight on its back. The rhinoceros beetle can carry 850 times its own weight!

The beetles have large horns coming off the centre of their heads (hence the name rhinoceros beetle) but the horn often bifurcates making it look like a deer's antlers. The male beetles use their horns in mating battles against other males.