Red List assessments for goliath beetles

[DesertRhino150]

A group of conservationists have recently assessed the IUCN Red List statuses of several of the African goliath beetles, from the genus Goliathus. Because of a lack of field data, two species that were not assessed were Goliathus orientalis (from Tanzania and northern Mozambique) and Goliathus albosignatus (with a wide range in Eastern and Southern Africa). The four species that were assessed are as follows:

Goliathus goliatus (common goliath beetle)

• Suggested Red List category: Near Threatened
• The most widespread goliath beetle, occurring throughout the Congo Basin rainforests, it is still at risk due to deforestation and, in some places, high collection rates for the entomological trade.

Goliathus meleagris (normally treated as a subspecies of G. goliatus, but elevated to species level here)

• Suggested Red List category: Least Concern
• Widespread in the southern DRC, northern Zambia and eastern Angola, it is a habitat generalist and is locally abundant. If its life-cycle turns out to be dependent on certain vulnerable habitats, it may warrant Near Threatened listing.

Goliathus regius (royal goliath beetle)

• Suggested Red List category: Endangered
• This species is thought to have declined by 50% in the past twenty years, primarily due to replacement of forest and agroforest ecosystems with extensive cocoa plantations as well as collection for the insect trade. This species is endemic to the small Upper Guinean Forest area, from Sierra Leone to western Togo and Burkina Faso.

Goliathus cacicus (chief goliath beetle)

• Suggested Red List category: Critically Endangered
• This species is thought to have declined by 80% in the past twenty years, primarily because of cocoa plantations - this is compounded by historic collection for the insect trade, this species being much more dependent on rainforest habitat and occurring across just five countries, namely Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Guinea - although there is suggestion that they are already extinct in Sierra Leone.

The research can be read in this link (if it fails to work, paste 'Red Listing African Goliath Beetles: Assessing Threats and Conservation Needs' into Google Scholar).

 

[DavidBrown]

Thanks for the interesting post. Which of these Goliath beetle species are most commonly kept in zoos? I have only seen live Goliath beetles at the Bronx Zoo in the gorilla forest exhibit and at the Albuquerque Biopark Insectarium, so presumably the captive populations in zoos are relatively small?

 

[DesertRhino150]

Thanks for the interesting post. Which of these Goliath beetle species are most commonly kept in zoos? I have only seen live Goliath beetles at the Bronx Zoo in the gorilla forest exhibit and at the Albuquerque Biopark Insectarium, so presumably the captive populations in zoos are relatively small?

I think the 'common' goliath beetle Goliathus goliatus is probably the most common species in zoos - even so, I have only seen it once, at The Bug Parc in 2023. Looking at the ZooChat gallery, every single goliath beetle I have seen displayed is of this species.
That being said, the royal goliath beetle G. regius is definitely kept and bred in the private trade, and is sometimes available. Zoos have also definitely kept and bred them in the past, such as Cincinnati. The chief goliath G. cacicus is apparently very difficult to breed in captivity, although someone within the native range has bred them to at least F3 generation and is releasing captive-bred females back into the wild.