Nicrophorus Americanus) Recovery in Missouri

Story Time: A Pivotal Time for American Burying Beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) Recovery in Missouri

Bob Merz Zoological Manager, Invertebrates, Saint Louis Zoo 1 Government Drive, Saint Louis, MO 63110 USA

ABSTRACT

Recovery efforts with the American Burying Beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) in Missouri have reached a pivotal point for several reasons. This paper will document the history of the project through the 2017 field season as well as discuss a new approach to reintroduction/monitoring of this species by attempting to create a meta-population of reintroduced beetles between several protected sites. The data driving these decisions will be presented along with other potential influences, such as a petition to de-list the species from the Federal Endangered Species Listing.

INTRODUCTION

The following is going to be more of a story. It is my opinion that conservationists as a whole are not very good at telling stories. We often convey data efficiently. We can talk about the implications of those data. And, we draw conclusions and make predictions based on that data. But, as a group, we don’t tell compelling stories well – especially in formal settings. We should.

Stories can connect people, share experiences and teach lessons. They also capture informal information that can get lost in more formal presentations of data and results – the reasons why a decision was made, or admitting a gut decision. They can even persuade people to act. So, like any story worth anything, I’ll begin with:

ONCE UPON A TIME

I figured that “Once upon a time,” was a more accurate beginning that “A long, long time ago,” since our story begins only seventeen years ago in the autumn of 2001. It was then that a Saint Louis Zoo employee brought in some rather large, shiny-black beetles, with very impressive red- orange spots all over them. He found these beetles on a dead bird and was wondering what these striking beetles were. We were, too.

Only vaguely familiar with Nicrophorine beetles at the time, the Zoo’s Insectarium crew sorted through a few dichotomous keys and field guides to determine that they were Nicrophorus marginatus. The Margined Burying Beetle is fairly common in the area, but we were interested to find out that a less common congener, Nicrophorus americanus, the American Burying Beetle was once common throughout Missouri but had not been found in the State for over two decades.

In fact, I must admit, there was a brief moment of excitement during our identification process where we wondered if the beetles brought in by that Zoo employee were, indeed, the federally endangered American Burying Beetle. They were not. They were a more common species in the same genus, but our curiosity was piqued.

During our research into Nicrophorine beetles, we discovered a few things:

First, there were very recent surveys beginning in 2000 and continuing into 2001 in Missouri being conducted by Chris Barnhart, PhD. and Robert Brown (Barnhart, M.C., Brown, R. 2002).

Second, they were found in Missouri up until the mid-1970’s in Newton County. But the record was unclear. There was speculation and even reports that some American Burying Beetles had been found as recently as the early 1980’s in Jasper County, but further follow up on this claim has not uncovered any voucher specimens to verify this date. But, we learned that they were currently found very nearby, in four States bordering Missouri – Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Third: A reintroduction program was underway on Nantucket Island, MA and a captive breeding program was started in 1990 by Andrea Kozol at Boston University.

Fourth, and most importantly, another zoo, the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, RI, had been raising American Burying Beetles and helping to reintroduce them to Massachusetts as well –meaning that we had a zoo-based template to model our program after.

SURVEYING THE LAND

Full embarrassing disclosure: I predicted very early on that we would find them in Missouri. I was confident.

To convince myself, I said that they were found just across the border in Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and Kansas, and Nebraska. I was fond of saying, “Beetles don’t know where the state borders are.” I wish I could take back my confident assuredness.

I was convinced that all we had to do was look. This is a nocturnal beetle that spends the majority of its life underground. Baited traps were the only way to reliable find them. But I often casually asserted that if we just poked around a little for them, we would find them. Needless to say, I was wrong, but that’s getting ahead of the story at bit.

So, in 2002, the Invertebrate Unit staff at the Saint Louis Zoo started our annual surveys for American Burying Beetles. The protocol and process is documented in various papers and articles, but the most dramatic part that folks remember is that it involves baiting pitfall traps with rotting chicken – or some variation of rotting vertebrate flesh. This is the part of the process that everyone seems to be quite amused by, and the part of the process that field researchers tend to “play up,” in order to get a reaction.

So, in 2002, after surveying in 14 Missouri Counties, at 17 locations – logging over 640 trap nights – we found zero American Burying Beetles. In 2003, with the numbers pared down a bit – we had 96 trap nights, in 3 Counties. But at this point, we really were just poking around, in our spare time. There was certainly no concerted effort or dedicated funding for this. To be honest, we fully expected to have found them by the end of our 2003 season, and the fact that we hadn’t was causing us to consider that they just might not exist in Missouri any longer.

2004 was the beginning of a new era for the Saint Louis Zoo and our conservation efforts. This was the year that the Saint Louis Zoo’s WildCare Institute was formed. In effect, the WildCare Institute is a reimagining of the Zoo’s approach to conservation. We were charged with two overarching tasks: to be more focused in our efforts and to have measurable impact. In short, we were told to pick an effort and make a difference. The Zoo’s Curator of Invertebrates at the time, Jane Stevens considered several options, and ultimately chose the Recovery of the American Burying Beetle. And because of this focus, there would be more funding available.

THE OHIO YEARS

So, beginning in 2004, we coordinated with The Ohio State University (OSU) in starting a captive colony of American Burying Beetles. This involved keeper staff traveling to Columbus, Ohio to observe OSU’s husbandry methods. It also involved us collecting American Burying Beetles from Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas as founders for the Zoo’s colony. These were the same contacts used by OSU for their colony.

This partnership led to a request by USFWS for the Saint Louis Zoo to provide American Burying Beetles for an on-going reintroduction project in Ohio. Our beetles would supplement beetles provided by OSU’s Insectary to this endeavor.

So, for the next seven years, the Saint Louis Zoo provided beetles and personnel to help with the reintroduction effort. And in the seven years that we partnered on this effort, the Saint Louis Zoo contributed over 2,000 beetles. We also sent every full time staff member to help with reintroductions, as a way to gain experience for our own reintroductions in Missouri. This period also introduced us to the efforts by the Cincinnati Zoo and The Wilds in the recovery of this endangered beetle.

It was during this time period, 2006 to be precise, that AZA formed a Species Survival Program (SSP) for American Burying Beetles. Lou Perrotti, Director of Conservation for the Roger Williams Park Zoo, continues to coordinate this effort.

BRINGING IT HOME

It is important to note, that during “The Ohio Years,” we were also continuing surveys across Missouri. These surveys increased in intensity, and we kept adding locations. In fact, by the time that 2011 had rolled around, we had nearly 17,000 trap nights in 36 Counties, and zero American Burying Beetles to show for all that work. It was becoming clear that they likely did not exist naturally in Missouri any longer.

During these surveys, however, one site stood out as a potential reintroduction site. Wah’ Kon- Tah Prairie is the largest remaining tallgrass prairie remnant left in Missouri. At 3,030 acres it is a patchwork of remnant and restored prairie with private land mixed into the matrix covering over 4,000 acres.

There were several factors that made this site a desirable location for reintroductions. - They have a healthy Bobwhite Quail population. This was a perfect sized potential resource for the beetles to use for rearing their young. - The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) had recently reintroduced the Greater Prairie Chicken to the site. Not only could these animals be a potential resource, the local landowners were familiar with the reintroduction of threatened species nearby. - The site is reasonably complex as far as soil structure, containing loess, clay and rocky soils. This promoted a variety of native plants that, in turn, nurtured a more diverse ecosystem than other restored sites in the State. - It was nearby to several other protected sites. These sites could eventually create a stepping stone approach to reintroduction with the goal of creating a meta-population of separate reintroduced populations across a broader area, while still close enough to allow for natural migration of the beetles between the sites. - The site was owned and managed by two willing partners, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and MDC. - There was a former ranch house on the site that was available, free of charge, for researchers to stay at. It wasn’t fancy, but it saved us a considerable amount of money in the early years and allowed us to get more trap nights in.

So, there we were, in 2011. We had nearly 17,000 trap nights logged throughout the State. No American Burying Beetles had been found. We had a good reintroduction location; two willing partners that owned and managed the property. We had a thriving colony of beetles at the Zoo, and every Invertebrate Unit staff member had both survey and reintroduction experience. All the pieces seemed to be in place for a reintroduction in Missouri.

Except….and this is a big one…the cultural attitude of the residents in the Southwest corner of Missouri was very skeptical of the Federal Government’s role with endangered species protection. There was a general concern in this section of Missouri about land rights issues, Federal Government overreach, and a healthy skepticism about the Endangered Species Act potentially curtailing or bogging down development in the area.

So, to address this, beginning in 2008, the Saint Louis Zoo, USFWS and MDC started discussions about approaching the reintroduction to Missouri as Nonessential Experimental Population (NEP). It was decided that the boundaries of this NEP designation would be easiest if they followed actual county boundaries. The four county boundaries of Cedar, St. Clair, Bates and Vernon, was based on the distance that American Burying Beetles were known to travel from various other field surveys taking place in Oklahoma and South Dakota. We also decided that should the beetles actually “take hold” and either expand their range or migrate beyond the boundaries, that the boundaries would follow the population. So, if our surveys showed that the beetles had moved into a neighboring county, then that county’s boundaries would become the new border designation for the NEP.

Here’s where the story gets a little wonky…but, in simple language, the NEP would allow local land owners to “take” (a fancy term for kill) American Burying Beetles in the course of lawful normal activity. So, even if they knew that the beetle was on their land, they could still plow their land and incidentally disrupt them. They could build a barn or a house. They could spray their crops, etc. By the same token, local communities could build roads, bridges, etc. without having to survey the area for the American Burying Beetle. I explain it this way: a person could not intentionally kill or injure the beetles, but if they did so, accidentally, incidental to lawful activity, the Feds don’t really care. The key words are “Nonessential,” and “Experimental.” The NEP allowed us flexibility in both our surveying methodology and assurances to local land owners that having this endangered species nearby would not impact their land use or development.

We had to bring this proposal to the local communities, and we did so by advertising, radio shows, newspaper articles and town hall meetings. After our 90 days of this “Due Diligence,” we found that there was very little concern and next to no opposition to the reintroduction. The USFWS had the entire process open for consideration of public comments and after this period, the NEP was adopted and we were ready to reintroduce American Burying Beetles in the summer of 2012.

CHALLENGES

The first release on June 5, 2012 went without a hitch. An enthusiastic group of Invertebrate Unit staff, volunteers and employees from MDC, USFWS and TNC placed 148 pairs of beetles snugly in underground brood chambers provisioned with a perfect-sized quail. The weather was beautiful. The Prairie was in full bloom. Even our follow up random checks on broods showed us that the reintroduced beetles did very well. And our subsequent surveys for adults later that summer found two American Burying Beetles that were offspring from the pairs that we put out. We were pleased to find them.

The second year was a beautiful day as well. Blue skies, the prairie in full bloom, and so on. That year we put 302 pairs underground with provisions for their offspring. I went to bed – very content. And then…at about 3 a.m. that night, in a nearby motel, I woke up to a clap of thunder and realized that it was pouring a torrential, Biblical-rain outside. I felt a sickening feeling creeping into my gut. That feeling did not go away for another two months.

At daylight, the reintroduction crew returned to our sites to survey the situation. It was disheartening. Beetles had left their chambers and were sitting on top of the soil, waiting for the rain to stop. There was not much we could do.

All in all a storm settled over the prairie and dumped nearly 1.5 inches of rain over a short period of time. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you add it up (I added it up), over 145, 076,400 gallons of water fell over our release site in about 5 hours’ time. The brood check, 10 days later, provided little comfort. A total of 5 larvae were found and the majority of the beetles had abandoned the chambers that we so carefully crafted for them.

My fears were alleviated later that year, when surveys for adults found 18 adults. Subsequent years brought rainfall and each subsequent year found more beetles than the year before it, peaking in 2016 with 737 beetles found in our surveys – again in spite of some very rainy reintroductions.

The “Great Rainout of 2013,” did allow us to fully realize the wisdom contained in the old adage about putting all of one’s eggs in one basket. So, in subsequent years, we divided our release into two separate events. While the two events also mean that we have twice the amount of travel, twice the amount of costs, and twice the amount of coordination, it is the better option. It also provided us the opportunity to involve a group of teen volunteers at the Zoo in all aspects of our conservation effort. (Cooney, E., Merz, B. 2011) The teen volunteers, under close supervision, help us care for the beetles prior to reintroduction at the Zoo. They, then travel to the release site to help us with hard work of reintroduction. This has not only been a wonderful opportunity for the teens, but they have also reinvigorated our staff with their youthful, infectious energy. Their excitement is contagious (Merz, B., Dawson, M., 2015).

AND SO…HERE WE ARE

So, now here we are, in 2018. We have seven years of reintroductions in Missouri under our belt. We have been finding a significant number of beetles for the past 3 years. Where do we go from here?

We are interested to see what happens to our population when we stop putting beetles out and stop provisioning them with resources. So, unless something drastic happens this year to change our minds, we have decided to make 2018 the last year for reintroductions at Wah’ Kon-Tah Prairie for a while or, hopefully, forever. We will continue to monitor the site for, at least, the next five years to see what the populations does. Based on a trends seen at the Nantucket reintroduction site, we fully expect the annual survey capture numbers to decrease and even the resident population to decrease. But we would like to see if the ecosystem can accommodate a self-sustaining population of American Burying Beetles.

We are encouraged by the fact that we have found beetles on protected sites away from Wah’ Kon-Tah. We have found some at Monegaw Prairie, which is nearby, and at Linscomb Prairie, about seven miles from the release site. This marks the furthest from our release site that we have found a beetle…but to be fair, we haven’t really looked much.

The plan moving forward is that over the next five years, we plan to survey Wah’ Kon-Tah Prairie while releasing more beetles at nearby Linscomb Prairie, about seven miles northeast and a site called Schell-Osage Conservation Area, about six miles northwest. Directly north of Wah’ Kon-Tah Prairie, about 12 miles as the crow flies, is a site called Taberville Prairie. If you were to draw a line between each of these, the four of these create a diamond shape on the map. The approach is to, unlike other reintroductions of this species, establish a more resilient, self- sustaining, meta-population of American Burying Beetles that can flow between these sites as various carrion resources are available. As told above, this represents one small facet of the zoo-base recovery effort for this species. Other zoos involved include the Roger Williams Park Zoo, who has championed the recovery since the beginning and generously helped other interested zoos. The Cincinnati Zoo and The Wilds also have a dedicated effort. While we are all working together, each institution is using different methodologies based on the specific challenges of the reintroduction sites and ability to monitor.

Another challenge facing this effort is a petition to de-list the species that is under consideration by the USFWS. There is some speculation regarding the data chosen and included in this petition. And there are concerns that the petition is not thorough in either its analysis or its representation of data gleaned from others. These concerns can be read at the website: https://www.regulations.gov/docketBrowser?rpp=25&so=DESC&sb=commentDueDate&po=0& dct=PS&D=FWS-R2-ES-2016-0011

A general but widespread concern for researchers is that, if the species is de-listed or even “downlisted” as “Threatened,” it could disrupt vital funding for research into what is happening with this species and even result in less attention by state agencies or NGOs in assisting with its recovery.

So, we come not to the end of our story, but to a pivotal point where there is lot left to be written. So I will leave you not with “The End,” but instead with:

To be continued…

REFERENCES

Barnhart, C.M. & R. Brown. 2002. A Survey For American Burying Beetles In Southwest Missouri. Report to Missouri Department of Conservation. 8 pp.

Establishment of a Nonessential Experimental Population of American Burying Beetle in Southwestern Missouri: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/ambb/FRProposedRuleNEP21July2011.html

Merz, B., Dawson, M., Using Endangered Beetles to Introduce Conservation Science to Teens Invertebrates In Education and Conservation Conference Proceedings 2015

Cooney, E., Merz, B., Activity For Rainy Days: Zoo Alive Teens Meet the ABB, Invertebrates In Education and Conservation Conference Proceedings 2011, pages 71 - 77.

The Petition to Delist the American Buying Beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) in Accordance with Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act, Petitioned by the Steward of Liberty, Independent Petroleum Association of America, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Dr. Steven W. Carothers, 2015.

Comments regarding the Petition to delist the American Burying Beetle: https://www.regulations.gov/docketBrowser?rpp=25&so=DESC&sb=commentDueDate&po=0& dct=PS&D=FWS-R2-ES-2016-0011