OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Federal wildlife officials said Wednesday a large scavenging beetle that has been classified as endangered since 1989 has become more plentiful and should be downlisted to threatened, a decision that environmentalists said is not justified by scientific data.

The American burying beetle was once found in 35 states and three Canadian provinces. It was on the brink of extinction when it was classified as endangered three decades ago, when it was found only in small populations in eastern Oklahoma and Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island.

Conservation efforts over the p...