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- [Rae] There are about a million known species of insects on Earth. Scientists think we've probably found only a fifth of them. They pollinate our crops. They feed the birds, the fish, the reptiles, and most of the small mammals. They are the tiny workers holding entire ecosystems together. This is Nebraska. Most of the state is corn country, but north of Lincoln, the ground goes low and wet, and the water that comes up is saltier than the sea. This is the home for the Salt Creek tiger beetle, the only home that it has anywhere on Earth.
- When I was a young, you know, animal trainer, somebody came to me and said, "Hey, Jeff, don't forget, all of these animals have little souls." And that has always stuck with me.
- Our guest today is Jeff Ewelt, also known as Jeff the Nature Guy, and a familiar face on the Wild Kingdom television show. He's the chief zoological officer at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, and he spent his entire career going to bat for the underdogs. Today, we'll learn all about a beetle that most people have never even heard of, and that has an entire coalition of scientists, zoos, and volunteers fighting for it.
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Welcome to "Back from the Brink" from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant.
- [Narrator] Each episode, we're going deep on a variety of species, one that went to the very edge of disappearing, and on the fight to bring it back.
- Jeff, I am so happy to be here with someone I consider a friend and a colleague.
- That's kind, it's, you know, always so great to see you and the whole Mutual of Omaha team. You guys are just always so welcoming, and it's always just a pleasure. So I'm happy to be here.
- Well, you're part of the family.
- [Jeff] Oh, that's so kind.
- And you and I, you know, we've traveled together, we've filmed together, we've geeked out over animals together, but, like, it's always been, you know, warm, fuzzy, charismatic mammals. But today, you are bringing me something different today.
- I am, and I love it because, listen, I have always been an underdog person. I love the underdogs of the animal world, the animals that people either don't wanna give the time because they're AKA gross, or they don't know about them. And so today we are gonna talk about the Salt Creek tiger beetle, probably an animal, although you probably have, but most people have never heard about.
- I will say, not only did I not know about the Salt Creek tiger beetle until I started prepping for this, but I can't even really tell you about tiger beetles in general.
- Yeah. - So that's why you're here.
- Yeah, you know, and that's the amazing thing about these tiger beetles is it's believed about 3,000 species of these insects. (Rae gasps) But what we're gonna talk about is the Salt Creek one because it's found only in one place in the entire world, and it's in Nebraska of all places. How cool is that?
- So, like, start from the beginning. For people who don't know what we're talking about, what is this beetle, and more importantly, what does it look like?
- So if you've never seen a Salt Creek tiger beetle-
- Which I have never seen one.
- Yeah, they're beautiful. They are a metallic brown, sometimes olive green. They've got these blotches of color that's on their body. The underbody of them is an iridescent green color. And then that's where the beautiful part happens. - Okay.
- Then it gets a little creepy because these really long legs, they've got bulging eyes, and they've got these jaws that come out that look pretty menacing. In fact, tiger beetles get the name because they are very predatory. And so they get that name because they are very quick at getting their prey.
- Okay, so not because they're like black and orange stripes? - No. You would think because of the coloration, but it's because of their predatory action. All that to say, when you are out in the wild and you see a tiger beetle, they're gonna be about the size of your thumbnail. I mean, so they're relatively small. - Oh, small.
- They're tiny. But when you see them for the first time, you're not gonna notice how small you are. You're gonna notice how fast they are. Those long legs help carry them quickly because they don't live very long once they emerge out of the burrows. We'll talk about that, but they're incredible. They're incredible little species. And again, only found in this one area north of Lincoln, Nebraska. I just love that. It's so amazing.
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- [Narrator] A beetle that is the size of a thumbnail in one marsh in one state. Jeff has been asked to justify it more times than he can count.
- You know, so the question I often get when we talk about these types of animals is why care? Like, why do we care that the Salt Creek tiger beetles having issues in their habitat? And we have to care before a couple reasons. One, I always like to push back on that question, why not, right? You know, when I was a young, you know, animal trainer, somebody came to me and said, "Hey, Jeff, don't forget, all of these animals have little souls." And that has always stuck with me, that it doesn't matter if it's a tiny little beetle or it's a black bear or whatever it is, it's got a soul, right? Yeah. So that's always stuck with me. And so I've always believed we should save any species we can, right? As the most intelligent species on Earth, which sometimes is questionable, humans, we need to do our part, right? And we have the ability, we have the technology, we have the people that are interested in doing that. So let's do something, right? So that's why I think we have to care about the Salt Creek tiger beetle. But if you wanna get technical about it, they're also an indicator species. Like a lot of the amphibians that you've talked about over the course of your career, you know, this species is so important to let us know how the saline wetlands are so important to us as humans. And if the beetle dies out, that could be the end of those wetlands. And that could be a big deal because it can affect flooding, it can affect, you know, water quality, it can affect so many different things. So let's save this beetle because it's an indicator species. It helps us, right? And I hate to always turn it around that it doesn't have to help humans, but let's be honest, that helps, right? That helps the opportunity to save these species.
- You know, this is interesting because we, as conservation professionals and as nature lovers, you know, even we are biased towards or biased away from insects and invertebrates. And, you know, I remember being maybe in, like, middle school or high school and learning about scarabs, right? So, like, learning about ancient Egypt, I think, and, you know, like, scarabs are kind of a part of the culture, and there's hieroglyphics. And I learned that that's kind of, you know, related to dung beetles. And then I remember becoming a conservationist and understanding dung beetles really make the world go round. - Absolutely.
- I mean, we cannot survive on this planet, or the planet can't survive without dung beetles. - Yeah.
- But I'm imagining that all kinds of beetles are relatively misunderstood or not understood yet, like you're saying, are indicator species or keystone species, are, you know, making things happen. And especially if the Salt Creek tiger beetle is predatory, probably what it's eating needs to be eaten.
- Absolutely. You know, and then that's exactly right. And, you know, some of these prey species, mosquito larvae, all that stuff that's so important that we have these animals that help keep those populations under control, right? You know, reptiles are the same thing. People are always scared of snakes, but my gosh, if we didn't have those reptiles eating the mice and the rodent- - Right. Rodents would go out of control. - Absolutely. You know, and with the Hantavirus scare that was recent, that brings all that to light, that, you know, all of this stuff works together. And, you know, it may be cheesy to talk about, but that circle of life is so real and so important. And it does. It starts with those smallest of the small that need our attention.
- So okay, I really wanna talk about the trajectory that this tiger beetle has had. But first, Jeff, I wanna understand why A, you know so much about it, and B, what is it about you that draws you to these tiger beetles?
- So I have just recently moved to Nebraska. I've been at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium for about a year now. And, you know, our conservation programs at that organization, as you well know, are incredible. And the Salt Creek tiger beetle has been one that the zoo has been working on. And again, because I've always gravitated to the underdogs of the animal world, vultures are my favorite animal, they always have been, I just gravitated to this program because I thought how amazing that all of these people, all of these entities, universities, you know, nonprofit organizations, all of these entities are coming together to save this little tiny insect. That's so inspiring to me. And so I gravitated to that for that reason and just kind of absorbed all I could in the last year. And I've been so fortunate to go on a release of some of these larvae. And it was an amazing, humbling experience that, you know, when you think, okay, you're just putting little larvae in the ground, how cool can it be? It blew me away. - Oh my God.
- It was an amazing experience. And then to be in this incredible habitat of these saline wetlands, which again, look otherworldly, was an amazing experience. So that's where my history comes from. I did not grow up working with these animals. - Okay.
- It's just something that came to me and I just, I fell in love with it.
- [Narrator] A narrow set of conditions met in one place on Earth, it's absolutely perfect for the beetle. Bear, salted mud along the creek banks, it is clear of plants and just damp enough for tunneling. There were once more than 20,000 acres of it.
- So the Salt Creek tiger beetle has had some trouble in its history. I'm sure that there was, you know, millions of years where it was doing just fine. And then what happened? - Yeah. Well, as always is the story, humans got involved. - Humans.
- I mean, you know, and as a human, I'm throwing myself under the bus here. We're part of the problem, right? So yeah, Salt Creek tiger beetles, because they are so tied to that saline wetland, as, you know, settling happened and, you know, the changing of rivers and creeks and kind of channelization of these waterways, it drained a lot of those wetlands. Building, obviously, agriculture, all of these things that have kind of, you know, hurt some of these natural landscapes.
- And I have to interrupt you. What part of Nebraska has the wetlands?
- Yeah, so it was pretty much overall of Nebraska for the most part. - Oh, really?
- But now it's really just honed into that kind of north of Lincoln, Nebraska. So think of center, kind of south-central of the state. - Okay.
- You know, Nebraska's a pretty big state. Kind of think of that center, that central area there. But these wetlands, what I think is so neat about them is they are salty. And so there's still a lot of misunderstanding of why that is. The theory and the understanding is that most likely, in the rocks underneath the soil, there's a very high salt content. Back in the ancient years, many, many, many moons ago, there was an ancient seabed that was salty, and those minerals kind of settled into that rock and became these kind of wetlands. And what's so neat about it is when you go out there, I keep saying it, but it's otherworldly because you're in the middle of Nebraska, you wouldn't think of having a salt marsh, essentially.
- At all. - No. And so you have these plants that are, they have evolved to obviously live within this area. So when you walk there, you're almost feeling like you're walking next to the ocean. It's bizarre. Right in the middle of corn country Nebraska, here they are. Over many years, obviously, those wetlands just kind of got plowed over. And unfortunately, as it always goes, we realize as time goes on, we made a mistake. These wetlands really are important. And so because of that, unfortunately, meant the demise of these beetles.
- I guess we wanna have some compassion because much of it wasn't intentional. - Sure.
- So folks in Nebraska said, "This looks like a great place for agriculture. We can spark an agriculture economy here. We can feed people. Let's change the ecosystem from wetland ecosystem to agriculture ecosystem." But that took away the habitat en masse.
- It did. Yeah. You know, and absolutely... I, you know, completely get it, right? Like, you know, we have to survive too, right? So it's a dicey area. The real dagger for this beetle, though, is that it's so tied to those saline wetlands that they couldn't just migrate to somewhere else. This beetle, because it evolved in this salt marsh, can't just move on. And so that's a big problem for this animal. And so thankfully, thanks to some of these recovery efforts, those wetlands are now being saved. And so these beetles can once again start the process of thriving, but it's gonna take some time, as all these conservation efforts do.
- Do you have a sense for how bad it got, like, in terms of population size or extent or whatnot? Do you kind of know, like, at what point we as conservationists and as society were quite worried and at what point, you know, recovery efforts began?
- So it started actually back in the early 2000s. I believe it was around 2005, maybe a little earlier than that. There was a pretty extensive study done to try to figure out the population. And when you're talking about such a small insect, that's a difficult thing to do, right? How do you get out there and make these counts, especially when they're living most of their life underground? And so it was a difficult process, but at that time, they only counted about 150 adults. Nothing- - 150.
- [Jeff] 150, right?
- And I bet they looked everywhere.
- They did, absolutely. And they canvased the habitats. So about 150 adults. The silver lining is that that got the attention of the federal government. And at that point, they were listed as endangered. So once that happened, that's when all of the resources started coming in, funding, resources to make some of these projects happen, partnerships, collaborations. And that was really the start of the recovery process of this animal.
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- [Narrator] Finding just 150 adults, the Salt Creek tiger beetle landed on the endangered species list in 2005. That's when the money arrived. Habitat was set aside, and a coalition came together for the humble beetle, a federal agency, a state agency, a university, a natural resources district, and a city, and two zoos. Together, they worked out how to raise larvae in a lab, and then they scaled it up.
- There's been efforts made. Now we have maybe 300 in the wild, but you just named a number of organizations who I imagine are bringing some of these beetles in-house to kind of propagate them. Have you seen that?
- Yeah. And that's happening, and it's amazing. So basically, the way that it works is that these beetles, so their lifespan, one of my favorite things about them is their bizarre lifespan. So they lay eggs. Once they hatch their eggs, they lay eggs. About 14 days later or so, they will hatch, and they will come out as a pupa, a larva, and they will live in this really narrow burrow. So when we release these animals, we use, like, a pencil to create this burrow. So think a pencil with, you know, down, I don't know, maybe what, 10 inches. They live in that burrow for two years in this pupa stage, this larva stage. - Oh my gosh.
- And they're opportunistic. So they wait for these animals to walk by, and then they run up and they grab these animals, and that's how they eat. After two years, they emerge as an adult, and they live for about two weeks. And all they do in that two weeks is they find a female or a male, they breed, and then they die. So that lifespan is about two years, but the only-
- And mostly underground. - And mostly underground. It's wild. So in order to propagate these animals, you, one, have to recreate that habitat because they are so tied to that salinity and that soil. Number two is you gotta essentially rear these things for a couple years if you wanna release adults, which we have done. But more often than not, we release the larvae. So we go out into these salt, in these salt marshes, we create those burrows, we put these little larvae in these holes, we cover it up, and we just hope that they survive those two years. And I will never forget the first release I went on, I'm holding this little tiny larva in my hand. I'm like-
- Which most people would not do.
- Exactly. - Okay.
- But I was amazed this little tiny, you know, worm-looking thing. I'm like, hundreds of people are here to watch this and do this. And it was just, it was heartwarming to me, like, for real. It really meant a lot to me. And so there's a lot of effort that goes into it. And it's not just zoos, it's universities, University of Nebraska, Game and Parks in Nebraska, US Fish and Wildlife. They're all coming together to make this happen. And it's just amazing. So much work goes into it, so much expertise.
- You know, I feel like for someone like you who's seen this firsthand, you know, folks gathering around larvae that you're gonna put in the earth and not see for two years, like, it must be so easy for you to access hope. You know, for some conservationists, it takes a lot for them to pull that hope out of them, but you actually are surrounded by examples day in and day out that can give you hope for the future.
- Yeah, that's exactly right. And that hope is everything, right? And, you know, there is something about, you know, packing a little larva into a hole, walking away, and just believing that larva's gonna survive. And we know that that's happening to a point because the population, although it's not huge, it's rising, right? So that hope is there. And so you're right. There is a point where, you know, when you're working with wildlife and you see firsthand that maybe a conservation program isn't happening the way you want it to, that's deflating, right? But when you can walk away and just in your mind have a little bit of hope that this is happening, it's good for the soul, right? And so that's what I do like about this program is that because we know those numbers are slowly rising, we know there is success out there, that hope is everything.
- I have to say, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is special. And one of the reasons that I find it special is that there is so much behind-the-scenes work at the zoo with the little guys, right? I mean, the zoo has incredible exhibits and habitats with these amazing iconic species, but I've seen the laboratories in the back, off-limits to the public, with, you know, the Puerto Rican crested toad, you know, like little animals that belong in one part of the world only, and there's only a few hundred of them. You know, and you all are, you know, hatching them from eggs and growing them up and giving them strength-training exercises and then shipping them in FedEx across the, you know, continent. And then with this Salt Creek tiger beetle, I have to get that right. - Yeah, it's tough.
- You know, you all are propagating larvae and, you know, bringing them back into these habitats. To me, that is something that everyone needs to know about, that you can have an amazing zoo experience as a guest of the zoo, but you should know that behind the scenes, there is very serious scientific work going on.
- Yeah, amazing scientific work. And I'm so honored to be part of Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. It's an amazing facility. And what I love so much about it is exactly what you said, is that our conservation efforts do focus on the little guys. I love how you put that because it's true. It's not just about the big ones, right? You know, the charismatic animals that we all talk about, because those little guys need to love too. You know, and I love and I'm so proud of the work that we do for that reason.
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- So, okay. You have been out in these marshes in Nebraska. And my question is, when it comes to those ecosystems themselves, right now, does it look like there's opportunity to restore some areas back into a healthy salt marsh? Or do you think the effort is more to preserve what salt marsh we have left?
- Yeah, I think a little bit of both, honestly. I think the preservation piece is gonna be the easiest piece, right? But you know, in the conservation world, easy isn't how we-
- It's not easy. - It's not easy, exactly. But preservation is actively underway, but so is restoration. There's an amazing organization in Nebraska called the Saline Wetland Conservation Partnership, and they've saved over 2,000 acres of wetlands and are actively restoring some of these wetland areas as well. So it's a little bit of both. You know, and that's what I love, especially now that there's the endangered status that we talked about. There's all these government entities and universities involved that it's getting the attention that it needs. And so because of that, I think the preservation is gonna continue years and years and years into the future, which I mean, you got to love that, right? I mean, that's what it's all about to save all these animals. It's amazing.
- Well, so Jeff, I mean, this is like a bit meta, but I mean, I can't help but think that if it took a really long time for folks to realize, like, "Hey, there's this beetle that is the size of your fingernail." If that just kind of more recently got discovered or kind of got attention brought to it, don't you think that we've got a similar issue in so many parts of America, let alone the world? I mean, should we all just be laying around in different ecosystems, looking at the ground to see what comes up, and then counting how many there are? What if there's, like, tons of endemic species everywhere?
- I'm telling you, it's overwhelming, right? - Yeah.
- You know, people laugh, but that's kind of weird stuff that'll keep you up at night when you're in this world- - Yeah, people like us. Yeah.
- Exactly, you know, because you're exactly right. What are we missing? You know, and as you know, you're one of them, being in the field and taking those counts and just observing is amazing. And I always love to say, like, get out and observe. Like, see what you see out there. Even somebody that has nothing to do with animals, like, just get out in nature and observe, and you don't know what you're gonna find. We got to get out there. We got to learn more. And I'm always still amazed in this world that there are still animals we have not discovered. And I'm not just talking to these small beetles. I mean, how can we not know that a primate still exists? It's wild to me, you know, but I love that. And I think, to your point, being able to get out there, get at nature, not just scientists and conservationists, but the everyday person, let's get out there and let's observe. And there's great tools that you can even record that stuff for the scientists and the conservations.
- You're absolutely right. You know, I love living in this era where any person at all, young to, you know, 130 years old, you know, can be activated and empowered to support science and drive conservation forward. These days, anyone over a certain age has a smartphone and there are apps like iNaturalist is a really well-known one. So everyone, download iNaturalist, where you can see anything and record it. Any living thing, you open the app, you take a picture of it, and it records the location that you saw it and what the species is. And so if you do find some interesting insect or reptile, amphibian, I mean any bird, whatever it is, you are contributing to scientific collection, and the people who can take action to say that species are able to say, "Oh my gosh, like, that bird was found in that place." This gives us hope. This gives us motivation to do a study to protect it.
- Absolutely. You know, the citizen science these days is amazing, and we couldn't do what we could do without them, you know, without that. And to be able to be somebody that is just out in nature, myself included, yourself included, snap a picture of a bird that you've never seen before, put it on iNaturalist, and then all of a sudden, you find out that bird hasn't been seen there in 100 years- - Right.
- What an amazing experience for you, right? You know, so I love stuff like that. And you're right, citizen science should be everywhere.
- I love stuff like that too. And it kind of unifies so many of us, you know, instead of saying that person does conservation, but not that person. Actually, all of us can be in this together to, you know, improve the state of the planet. - So right.
- Jeff, it has been so awesome talking to you. I never thought I would have a big smile on my face- - I love it.
- After spending time talking about a tiger beetle.
- Beetles. I know. They're so cool.
- I am changed. - I love that. You know, and that's what it's all about. And you know, in our world, it's all about creating that excitement, right? I love changing people's minds. Best part of the job.
- And you are doing that every single day. - I love it.
- Thank you so much, Jeff Ewelt, for joining us-
- Pleasure. - On "Back from the Brink."
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If this episode sparked something for you, follow or subscribe. Leave a review and send it to the wildlife lover, the Nebraskan, or the person in your life who stops to look at bugs on the sidewalk and gets left behind by the group, or the friend who's all three. I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, and I'll see you next time.
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- [Narrator] The "Back from the Brink" podcast is sponsored by Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, hosted by Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. Narrated by Peter Gros. Executive producers are Jen Wulf and Jenny Van Soelen. Podcast production by Lower Street Media.
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