Grassland conservation benefits American burying beetle 

Large-scale grassland conservation efforts have helped increase the threatened American burying beetle population.  

In a Working Lands for Wildlife-affiliated project, Caleb Roberts, a U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist and unit leader at the Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, studied population counts of the species taken by the Nebraska Game and Parks Department. He and his colleagues specifically looked at populations in the state’s Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape from 2007 to 2019.  

The research showed that maintaining intact, highly connected grasslands is the most effective way to conserve the American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus). Scale and spatially explicit conservation tactics were also important for managing for small species like the beetle, the team found. 

The American burying beetle’s range once included 25 U.S. states and even Canada. Today, most remaining populations live on privately owned grasslands in Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and South Dakota.  

First listed as federally endangered in 1989, the beetle’s status was changed to threatened in 2020. These nocturnal carrion beetles play an important role in ecology by helping recycle nutrients. Its presence or absence can also help land managers gauge the overall health of an ecosystem.  

Read more from Working Lands for Wildlife.