PROVIDENCE – 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.
The federal wildlife service honored Perrotti in a special ceremony at the zoo in December, which had twice been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Perrotti, the wildlife service said, 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.
The wildlife service said that over the last 25 years, Perrotti established a captive-rearing program for American burying beetles at the zoo and worked with partners to release thousands of individual beetles on Nantucket to reestablish a population of the species on the eastern edge of its range. Perrotti also captive-reared, and worked to conserve New England cottontail, timber rattlesnake and Karner blue butterfly – all species that are native to the Northeast and elusive by nature, the wildlife service said.
“I am honored to be recognized by my colleagues and presented with such a prestigious award. But this accolade belongs as much to the Zoo as it does to me,” Perrotti said in a statement. “Our vet staff, the keepers who take care of our animals, all our partners … that we collaborate with deserve to share in it.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
