Dung beetles are often used as indicators of forest health. However, not much is known about the non-forest dwelling dung beetle species of the Malay Peninsula and the species in this habitat have not been compared to communities recorded in anthropogenically altered habitats in South East Asia. Grassland along forest edges is the habitat of grazing megafauna and the dung produced by these mammals is a potentially large resource to dung beetles that can adapt to non-forest habitats. In this study, we classified 25 dung beetle species associated with elephant dung based on their habitat preference. We sampled six different localities on the Malay Peninsula, placing transects within forests and along forest edges. Elephant dung baited traps were deployed at regular intervals along these transects. Forest sampling points had higher abundance, species richness and Shannon diversity than forest edge sampling points, but there was no significant difference in species accumulation curves or rarefied species richness. Hierarchical cluster analysis and ordination indicated a clear division between forest and forest edge species. A binomial generalised linear mixed model further showed that 14 species preferred forest habitats and eight preferred forest edge habitats. These classifications largely agreed with previous habitat preference studies conducted in Borneo and Sulawesi. It is likely that habitat preference in dung beetles is dependent on abiotic factors such as temperature as well as biotic factors such as forest cover and mammalian diversity. The lack of records of non-forest species in literature indicates that non-forest habitats may be neglected in terms of dung beetle studies.