Court backs threatened status for beetle species

A federal appeals court has upheld a decision by a lower court in 2023 to downlist the American burying beetle to threatened and reduce its federal protections. The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) is the largest carrion beetle in North America. Its range extends from the southern borders of three eastern Canadian provinces and across 35 states along the eastern seaboard to Florida and other Gulf states. Since it was first listed as endangered in 1989, the beetle has been found in only about eight states, representing a 90% loss of its historic range. Scientists believe this decline is linked to habitat loss, fragmentation, environmental changes and the extinction of the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), a key part of its original ecosystem. Following a request from the oil and gas industry to delist the species in 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the beetle had recovered parts of its historical range in eight states and downlisted the species in 2020. The Center for Biological Diversity challenged the decision, arguing that it violated the U.S. Endangered Species Act. That organization also cited projections that the beetle could lose nearly 60% of its remaining range within 15 years. The court ruled in a partially split decision that the species is not at imminent risk of going extinct. The species is still listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as critically endangered.