Endangered American burying beetle: conservation and ecology

Biology

Endangered American Burying Beetle

This is a paper about the Endangered American Burying Beetle. There are four references used for this paper.

There are a number of species that are facing extinction throughout the world. It is important to look at the Endangered American Burying Beetle and determine its ecological significance, its population and geographic distribution, the known anthropogenic threats, and a realistic management plan for recovery.

Ecological Significance

The American Burying Beetle plays a significant role in ecology. The beetles "bury carcasses found on the ground, thus playing an important role in the recycling of nutrients. Through the act of burying, they also remove prey from competing flies and ants, and in this way may serve to limit those species, which sometimes reach pest proportions (http://endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html#Species)."

Population and Geographic Distribution

The beetle used to be found throughout the eastern portion of North America, however, today is only found in two natural areas- "on Block Island, off the southern coast of Rhode Island, and in eastern Oklahoma, where it has been recently recorded in Latimer, Cherokee, Muskogee, and Sequoyah counties. Some beetles, however, have also been found in southwestern Missouri, and in the Platte River Valley in west-central Nebraska (http://endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html#Species)."

The population of the beetle is thriving fairly well on Block Island, with an estimated mean adult population in 1991 of 375. During the same year, 207 adult beetles were recorded by researchers in Oklahoma.

Anthropogenic Threats

There is no clear cause in the decline of the American burying beetle, however it has been suggested that the "decline has the characteristics of the rapid spread of a pathogen, while there is no evidence which supports this explanation. Fragmentation or loss of the beetle's habitat, as well as competition with raccoons and other scavengers that tend to follow humans into new environments may also have contributed to the beetle's decline (Chenot)." The use of chemicals such as DDT in the beetle's natural habitat may have also posed a severe threat to the species' population.

Some biologists suggest the decline may be due to a "decreasing availability of suitable carrion and increasing competition for carcasses by other species (Prospero)." In order for the beetle to reproduce, it must have the carcass of a vertebrate animal approximately the size of a dove.

Recovery Efforts

There have been a number of proposed plans for recovery management of the beetle, as well as implementations. In 2001, there was a largest "American burying beetle reintroduction effort in the 12-year history of the species' recovery program on Nantucket Island off the Massachusetts (Clough)." Over 300 beetles were raised for this release in Providence, Rhode Island at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. In June 2001, "320 American burying beetles (160 pairs) were given dead quail for food and released at the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Sesachacha Wildlife Sanctuary. With each pair of beetles capable of raising 10-20 larvae, there is hope the release will result in thousands of beetles on the island (Clough)."