RARE SPECIES

Conservation Specialist

Eastern Oklahoma, black circles are beetle presence, black X is beetle absence. Dark red indicates areas that Maxent model predicts to be suitable habitat for the beetle. (You see, the model and observations don't always agree.)

The American burying beetle was once wide spread in eastern North America. However, this now endangered species is only found in the wild in a few disjunct populations. We were interested in describing the current distribution of the beetle in Oklahoma with respect to the physical environment. Survey data from 2000-2007, supplemented with observation records dating back to 1979, were used to model the potential distribution of the American burying beetle. Using species distribution modeling techniques, occurrence data were correlated to environmental and anthropogenic data layers in a GIS to determine areas of suitable beetle habitat. Several modeling algorithms were used to create predictive maps of beetle distribution. Results from these analyses may lead to a better understanding of the environmental factors that govern beetle distribution and to help to focus conservation efforts of this endangered species.

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