Ferret keeps DB connections open?

I’m working on an adopted project that is using acts_as_ferret with
rails 2.0.2 - when I save a model that implements this and check the
number of open connections in mySql - I get another connection. This
came to my attention when using the bulk_update method - i get a new
connection for every id I pass in! Is this the standard behavior of
ferret? Anybody know how to keep these connections from staying open?

Thanks!