Zach at the Zoo: The Salt Creek Tiger Beetle

We go off exhibit to learn about the salt creek tiger beetle – an extremely endangered insect only found in a small part of Nebraska – and the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium's efforts in saving the species.

• VIDEO: Behind the scenes inside the Salt Creek Tiger Beetle Conservation Room in the Berniece Grewcock Butterfly & Insect Pavilion.
• Only habitat in the world is 15 acres large in Lancaster and Saunders Counties.
• The zoo has partnered with several organizations to save the species

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

A lot of work is being done inside this room in the butterfly & insect pavillion

“So this is the Salt Creek Tiger Beetle Conservation Room,” Supervisor of Terrestrial Invertebrates Sarah Jenkins said. “This is where we are saving an endangered species that is endemic and found only here in Nebraska.”

That’s right, this beetle, about the size of a sunflower seed, is exclusive to the cornhusker state.

“They are from saline wetlands which is a very rare habitat in the middle of the country here in Nebraska," Jenkins explained.

The zoo has partnered with a handful of organizations in an effort to increase the population in the insect’s small, remaining habitat.

“So with this program being so local — all of our keepers get an opportunity to go out and see the habitat and see what they’re doing in-person," Jenkins said. "It’s very rewarding to have a local impact that way.”

She showed us what the daily process looks like when separating the larvae.

“This is going to happen pretty quick. Boop. There he is,” Jenkins said before putting the insect into a new container.

“And this is going to be his home for the next year.”

Once grown up —

”They are very ferocious. If one was actually the size of a tiger, i’d rather encounter a tiger than a tiger beetle,” Jenkins laughed.

“They will eat anything they can catch. They are predators through and through.”

And these predators can move!

“They can run so fast that they cannot process the visual information," She explained. "So they do kind of a stutter run where they will take off after something, and the have to actually pause so they can make sure it’s still where they saw it when it started."

But they don’t get long to show off the wheels.

”They get about 6-8 weeks as adults, and that’s it.”

“It makes it incredibly difficult to do wild population counts because there’s just that 6-8 week window where there are adults, and counting larvae in the wild is virtually impossible.

The salt creek tiger beetles here will be released to the Little Salt Creek Wetland Complex in the spring.