NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) - Lou Perrotti stands up for the members of the animal kingdom that humans tend to forget.
As the director of conservation programs at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, he’s a champion of the not-so-cute and fluffy.
And one of his favorite critters is the American burying beetle, a critically endangered species once found across the country, spread through 35 states. Now, the only place on the East Coast with a natural population is Block Island in Rhode Island.
And if his more than two decades of dedication to the wine-cork-sized black and orange beetle isn’t enough of a display of his affection, his love is made obvious through a tattoo of the beetle on his right arm.
Earlier this month, Perrotti and a small band of scientists worked to boost a reintroduced population on Nantucket as an insurance policy for the Block Island beetles.
Burying beetles are decomposers. They take dead animals, normally birds and small mammals, and bury them in the ground. They are recyclers that keep the ecosystem’s balance, Perrotti said. The beetles build a tunnel adjacent to the carcass and lay their eggs in it. Once the larvae hatch, the family feasts on the animal, which has been preserved by secretions from the beetles.
Last week, with the help of the Maria Mitchell Association and other Nantucket conservation organizations, Perrotti introduced more than 100 zoo-raised beetles into the Middle Moors area of the island. This is the first time since 2006 that captive beetles have been released on the island, the first of an annual five-year reintroduction period.
The release will hopefully produce between 500 and 800 new beetles after mating season, he said.
“We want to try and build them back up again,” Perrotti said.
The operation was like a well-run kitchen. In the middle of a mowed field of scrub, Perrotti stood with a battered, green Igloo cooler, filled with deli cups holding a male and female beetle.
Before him were 50 holes the size of dinner plates neatly lined up in five rows of 10. They all had a plug of earth that had been carved out and placed inside. Each hole was numbered and corresponded with numbers on the deli cups and their beetles. Other scientists, interns with the Maria Mitchell Association, and members the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, set to work with trowels.
One would come over to Perrotti, tell him what number hole they were working on and he would give them their deli cup of beetles and a dead quail for the beetles to eat.
Brandon Quinby, a doctoral student at Purdue University who has been studying the beetles for years, took a trowel, cut a side chamber for the beetles and placed the quail inside along with the beetles. The beetles can bite, but it’s just a sting, Quinby said. As they move, they make the sound similar to a creaking floor.
Before the release, Perrotti said he was going to be like a “nervous dad” worrying about his babies.
“It’s not often you get to witness the release of a federal endangered species,” he said. “You don’t have to go to Amazonia or Africa to see endangered species. They’re right here in our backyard.”
For years, conservationists have been watching over the reintroduced Nantucket population, which steadily increased from 2004 until 2011. Like last week, during that time the beetles were given the help of pre-dug holes and free quails. But in 2011, conservationists wanted to test if the beetles could be self-sustaining and pulled back some of the aid; the population counts plummeted.
In 2011, there were an estimated 212 beetles on Nantucket, the population’s peak. Scientists have been trapping the beetles annually, and in recent years they’ve only caught in the single digits.
Last fall, the population seemed to rebound, with 100 beetles trapped, but this spring only seven were found. Some of them were ones that had been trapped previously and survived the winter on the island.
Normally, about 75 percent of the adult population will die over the winter, so seven is lower than expected, but getting accurate population totals for a nocturnal species that spends a lot of time in the ground is a bit tough, Perrotti said. The conditions this year were also difficult, with cold, foggy weather extending later into the season.
“We don’t really get a good grip on the true population,” he said. “I think the population out here is higher than we think.”
When people ask Perrotti, why save these beetles, he counters simply, “why not?” The entire operation, not counting his salary, costs less than $4,000, Perrotti said. The most expensive part of the re-introduction was ferry tickets and car rentals. The green Igloo cooler has part of the effort since 1994, same as the stakes that are used to hold down a screen over the beetle broods.
The whole program makes a big impact on a small budget, Quinby said. He is conducting a stable isotope study of the beetles to figure out what beetles are eating what types of food. This will help parse which beetles are wild (not eating Perrotti’s quails) and which ones are from the zoo.
Quinby said he actually wanted to study snakes, but was charmed by the beetles, just like Perrotti. Besides the benefit of composting, the bugs have interesting behavior and other scientific prospects.
They have some of the most biparental care for their young of any insect. The secretions used on their carrion - the animals they bring into their broods - also preserve the animal and prevent decay.
Scientists are trying to synthesize the secretions to keep food from spoiling and in wound care, Quinby said.
Both Quinby and Perrotti are aware that caring for beetles and pushing their reintroduction isn’t sexy.
“It’s not a tiger cub,” Quinby said as he put one of the beetles into a brood. “I know it’s not as exciting.”
But Perrotti and the others will continue to protect them.
“It’s not always about the rhinos and the elephants,” Perotti said.
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Online: https://bit.ly/2KyJ6b4
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Information from: Cape Cod (Mass.) Times, http://www.capecodtimes.com
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