Short-term movement patterns of the endangered American burying beetle Nicrophorus americanus

Abstract

We conducted a mark–recapture study to evaluate short-term movements of the endangered American burying beetle Nicrophorus americanus. We found that beetles moving between sites averaged 1.23 km night −1 in their search for carrion ( n=23 movements between sites) with a range from 0.25 km for 1 night to a maximum of 10.0 km over 6 nights. In support of the supposition that American burying beetles are generalists in their search for carrion, we observed individual beetles moving between different habitat types (71% of recaptures were in a habitat different from that of the previous site of capture), including movements between grassland and woodlands, as well as between bottomland and upland woodlands. No differences in recapture rates were detected between males and females, or between teneral and fully sclerotized beetles. No beetles were recaptured between trapping sessions within a few weeks of one another within the same year, or from 1 year to the next. The relatively long distances that individual beetles move and the potentially short residency time should be taken into account when evaluating data from monitoring of extant populations and when devising plans to establish new ones.