Quick: Where is the most unlikely place to find a fish in the USA? Unless your answer was Death Valley, you were probably wrong.
The Devils Hole pupfish holds the official record for the smallest habitat of any vertebrate species. That’s because it lives in a single limestone cave in a Nevada wildlife refuge in Death Valley and nowhere else.
Now, the latest population survey shows that the number of fish has reached a 25-year high, with over 200 individuals counted after spring breeding, officials in Nevada report.
It’s a long way from the low of 35 fish seen in the 2013 survey.
“It’s exciting to see an increasing trend, especially in this highly variable population. Increasing numbers allow the managing agencies to consider research that may not have been possible in the past, when even slight perturbations of habitat or fish had to be completely avoided,” Senior Fish Biologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Michael Schwemm, said the press release. “We’re excited about the future directions with respect managing this species.”
According to the FWS, the 0.9-inch fish lives only in the habitat of Devils Hole—composed of two distinct areas: a limestone rock shelf that is 11 feet-6 inches by 16 feet-5 inches and 11.8 inches deep, and a second area 11 feet by 55 feet-10 inches in area and an unknown depth.
The Devils Hole pupfish resides in the upper 80 feet (24.38 meters) of the body of water, where the temperature remains a constant 91.4 to 93.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
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It eats primarily algae and diatoms, and that’s the extent of this fish’s life. One wonders what the equivalent of a natural goldfish bowl is like to live in for this fish, and for how many generations their little silver and blue bodies have graced its turquoise waters.
Do they dream of what lies beyond their sheltered cove, or what manner of beast it is that stands upright above the water with pen and paper ogling them? We may never know, but there is a cold comfort given to the nature lover who knows, even if they never witness it, that a small and inconceivably vulnerable fish lives on still in peace and tranquility in the desert.
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