THE AMERICAN BURYING BEETLE RECOVERY PROGRAM
Saving nature's most efficient and fascinating recyclers

Beetle facts:
Known as nature's most efficient and fascinating recyclers, burying beetles are important scavengers that are responsible for recycling decaying animals back into the ecosystem.

The American Burying Beetle is the largest carrion beetle in North America. Listed as an endangered species by the US Fish and Wildlife service since 1989, the beetle was once found throughout eastern and central United States, plus southern Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. The Burying Beetle is now native only to Block Island, Rhode Island and seven other areas in the Midwestern United States.

Photo by Paul Erickson

Nicrophorus americanus grows as large as two inches, and lives about 12 months. It has a black, shiny carapace (or surrounding armor-like shell) with bright orange markings on its back, wing coverings, and head. The field marking identifying this species is a circular orange spot on its pronotum. The beetles have strong pincers, used for both fighting and ripping through food.

The most intriguing aspects of this creature are how it eats and how it reproduces…which are very much related. This beetle, like many scavengers, eats dead, decaying animals. The interesting twist, though, is that the American Burying Beetle not only feeds off the dead carcasses of many species, it also uses certain dead animals to serve as a brood chamber and food source for its offspring.

Photo by Paul Erickson

While the exact reasons for their decline remains a mystery, one theory is that the beetles' decline is due to human alteration of the food chain. Years ago, the top station of the food chain in New England was reserved by wolves, bears, and predatory cats. As hunting and human expansion began to wipe out these predators, the populations of second tier mammals, like foxes, raccoons, and skunks, began to increase. Foxes and raccoons eat carrion of the size that beetles need for laying their eggs. It's possible that the Burying Beetle soon found itself unable to compete with the much larger animals for carrion, and therefore, was unable to reproduce.

See video - Nantucket beetle release Choose a format: RealPlayer Windows Media Player Quicktime The team digs holes for the beetle pair. Carrion (a quail) is placed in the hole. A male and female beetle are placed in the hole, which is covered by a screen. They'll mate and begin to prepare the carcass almost immediately.

Recovery Program:
Since 1995, RWPZ has successfully reared multiple generations of beetles and, working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, has released over 1,000 pairs of beetles in Nantucket, MA. In 2000, the AZA's North American Conservation award honored Roger Williams Park Zoo for its American burying beetle breeding program.

Most recently, in the summer of 2003, the zoo provided 161 pairs of beetles for the annual U.S. Fish and Wildlife release on Nantucket Island, MA. As in 2002, there were two release sites on Nantucket, one on the west side of the island on Nantucket Conservation Foundation property, and the other on the east side of the island on Massachusetts Audubon Society Land. Wild beetles were also trapped, paired and provisioned with carrion. An estimated 1,012 larvae were produced by the captive-bred beetles nd the wild provisioned beetles.

Special thanks to the American Burying Beetle Project Partners:
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Massachusetts Audubon
Massachusetts DEM
Rhode Island DEM
Roger Williams Park Zoo
University of Rhode Island

Contact Information:     
Loius Perrotti                                 
RWPZ's Conservation Program's Coordinator, ABB Species Coordinator
Roger Williams Park Zoo              
1000 Elmwood Ave.            
Providence, Rhode Island 02907           
Tel: (401) 785-3510 x335
lperrotti@rwpzoo.org