Adjunct Assistant Professor, Rodger Gwiazdowski Tracking Endangered Puritan Tiger Beetles

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Rodger Gwiazdowski Tracking Endangered Puritan Tiger Beetles

Courtesy: Daily Hampshire Gazette Environment: The fight is on to save the last of the puritan tiger beetles   By GRETA JOCHEM Staff Writer Published: 7/16/2019 3:49:04 PM NORTHAMPTON — Shoeless and armed with binoculars, Chris Davis and Neil Kapitulik look serious scanning every inch of Rainbow Beach on a recent morning. They aren’t looking for lost treasures, as they maneuver around people lounging in chairs and kids playing in the sand on the strip of land owned by the city of Northampton on the Connecticut River. Davis and Kapitulik, contractors for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, were surveying the beach for puritan tiger beetles, an endangered species that lives in only a handful of places in the world, one of which is Rainbow Beach. Scientists have recently planted more there in an effort to boost their numbers. The beetles, about the size of a thumbnail, can only be found in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and in two areas along the Connecticut River — Rainbow Beach and...
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