Tulsa World: New approach to save beetle tried

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New approach to save beetle tried

The American burying beetle has all but disappeared across the U.S. and is a federally protected species. Nature Conservancy

By MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff Writer
Published: 4/26/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 4/26/2009 4:07 AM

When a field mouse dies at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, the carcass will often disappear overnight, as if carried away to a rodent graveyard for a decent burial.

Scientists have a rather putrid way of studying the phenomenon: leave out raw chicken as bait, letting it rot in the sun all day.

After dark, the "undertakers" will come.

The largest patch of undisturbed native tallgrass left on the Great Plains, the Prairie Preserve is best known for its roaming herd of bison. But it turns out to be a sanctuary for a more obscure endangered species, as well.

The American burying beetle used to thrive across much of the continent. But it has all but disappeared in most of the country. Northeastern Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas offer the last significant refuges.

"They're the undertakers of the animal kingdom," says Dan Howard, who grew up in Oklahoma and is researching the beetle for the University of Toronto. "Just like undertakers in human society, they provide a very important and very necessary service."

Two inches long with bright orange markings on their backs, the beetles will drag away a small dead animal and bury it just beneath the surface, on which the beetles will mate and leave behind larvae to feed off the carcass.

"Sounds disgusting," Howard admits. "But it's all part of the life cycle."

The beetles help break down dead animals, which fertilizes the ground, which promotes plant growth, which creates the habitat for the animals.

"The fact that the beetles are disappearing means the cycle is breaking down," Howard says. "There's something seriously wrong in the ecosystem, and we need to figure out what it is."

'Accomplish something'

Protected under federal law, a single American burying beetle can bring an entire road construction project to a standstill.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation would hire consultants to look for more beetles, at a cost of $2,500 for the first survey and $1,000 more for each additional survey. Each mile of a road project would require a separate survey.

If the surveys found beetles, the department would have to "trap and relocate" as many as possible — keeping the project on hold in the meantime.

"It was both time-consuming and expensive," complains Julianne Hoagland, a biologist in the department. "And it was really doing absolutely nothing for the American burying beetle conservation."

To sidestep the need for the surveys, Hoagland spent most of 2007 negotiating a deal among her agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Oklahoma chapter of The Nature Conservancy, which operates the Prairie Preserve.

Now, instead of funding beetle surveys, the state Transportation Department deposits an equivalent sum of money into a "conservation bank."

Hoagland says it could save the state potentially millions of dollars in the long run by keeping road projects on schedule.

And it will potentially save the American burying beetle, too.

"It's better to spend our money to effect real conservation," Hoagland says. "Basically, for all practical purposes, we're spending the same amount of money. But now we're accomplishing something with it."

'A win-win situation'

Last year, 70 projects in the state would have required a beetle survey.

Instead, the Nature Conservancy will use those funds to protect the beetle's habitat at the Prairie Preserve and other places across Oklahoma.

As part of that effort, the Conservancy will bring in Howard this summer to launch a major research initiative.

Scientists don't know why the beetle is vanishing in most places or why it continues to thrive in certain parts of Oklahoma.

"If we can figure out why the beetles are found here but not there," Howard says, "then we can try to replicate conditions that will bring back the beetle population."

Also, if "conservation banking" proves effective in this case, the Fish and Wildlife Service will consider it for other endangered species.

"It's a win-win situation for everybody," says Jay Pruett, the director of conservancy for the Oklahoma Nature Conservancy.

"The Transportation Department gets to build roads. The Nature Conservancy gets to preserve habitat. And taxpayer money isn't wasted on surveys that weren't accomplishing anything." By MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment Eagle 4, Tulsa (4/26/2009 8:07:04 AM) "There's something seriously wrong in the ecosystem, and we need to figure out what it is." Go to Google Earth and comprehend the massive pastures and fields dedicated to cattle that provide very few carcasses and crops fed by heat-producing fertilizer, sprayed with toxic chemicals, and inedible to most wildlife for a start on the path to wisdom.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, Austin, TX (4/26/2009 11:29:55 AM) Bu there's only two Beatles left. John and George are dead.
	Report Comment Fred, Tulsa (4/26/2009 12:37:00 PM) Eagle 4, Years ago a drug called Ivermectin was introduced in a paste form to place in the mouths of cattle and horses and other animals to prevent parasitic round worms from infecting the animals. The problem is that the chemical comes out slowly in the solid or semi-solid wastes of the animals. Dung beetles can't remove the wastes because it is poisonous to them. This same chemical is in the pastures where burying beetles are and if there is extensive cattle operations going on there the burying beetles will be supressed.We are fortunate to have some ranch land where we have been able to remove cattle for the last 8 years. You would not believe the wonderful recovery we have seen not just to the native grasses, but also to the animals, including all forms from insects all of the way to mammals that live there. Alas, Ivermectin is necessary monthly for dogs to prevent heart-worms, so you find it in the soils wherever dogs are too.
	Report Comment Eagle 4, Tulsa (4/26/2009 12:45:23 PM) Excellent, Fred, great addition! Now if they'll pinpoint the cause of the alarming rise of autism in youngsters...

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