LOUIS PERROTTI, Roger Williams Park Zoo’s director of conservation, was celebrated recently in recognition of receiving the 2020 Recovery Champion Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Perrotti was recognized for his work to advance recovery of the federally protected American burying beetle, a large invertebrate known for burying the carcasses of dead animals to provide food for its young.
What does receiving this honor mean to you? To be recognized by the Fish and Wildlife Service and presented with one of the highest honors you can receive for endangered species recovery is truly an honor! But we do not do this work to win awards; we do it to keep our planet as good as it was left to us and hopefully a bit better for the next generation. There are many of my colleagues dedicated to saving species and habitats that are worthy of this award. I am humbled to be the recipient, but what is exciting is that it was for the recovery of a non-charismatic invertebrate species.
What attracted you to wanting to advance recovery in the American burying beetle? I have always been a champion for lesser-known and non-charismatic species. When we started working with this species in 1994, there weren’t a lot of invertebrate conservation programs outside of butterflies. I saw the value this project had not only for the recovery of the American burying beetle but for it being the flagship species to help bring awareness and develop conservation programs for other at-risk invertebrate species as well, and it has.
Describe the captive-rearing program you established at the zoo for the beetle. The recovery plan includes monitoring the existing populations, maintaining captive populations, conducting a pilot reintroduction effort on Penikese Island [off the coast of Massachusetts], prioritizing areas and conducting surveys for additional wild populations, and conducting further reintroductions and managing new in and ex situ populations. Given the success of the pilot reintroduction on Penikese Island in the early 1990s, in 1994, the Fish and Wildlife Service started a second reintroduction program on the nearby island of Nantucket, Mass. Recognizing the need for an additional source of captive-raised beetles, the Roger Williams Park Zoo was asked to participate. This was seen as a great opportunity to participate in a local endangered species conservation initiative, and the zoo was honored to become involved.
Are there new conservation efforts you plan to do in the near future? I will be continuing to design, implement and manage working partnerships with state and federal agencies, involving Roger Williams Park Zoo in the recovery efforts of the federally threatened American burying beetle and state-listed species such as the New England cottontail rabbit, wood turtle, eastern box turtle, eastern spadefoot toad and timber rattlesnake. I will also work with partners on our current international projects designed to save species and habitats in Chile and Peru.
