Guns, Beer, Vomit, and the Death of a Devils Hole Pupfish
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Reading some of the comments on the article, one guy nailed it...The place got "White Trashed".
I saw an article on the pupfish, posted it a while back. Quick search and I found it again...
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...rlds-rarest-fish-may-mean-letting-it-die-out/
The Devil’s Hole pupfish – claimed to be the rarest fish known – isn’t what we thought.
This pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis, lives in a single pool in the middle of Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth. We had assumed it had been clinging to isolated existence at that site since the glaciers receded and the valley dried up 10,000 years ago. But its genes tell a different story.
The species is actually a newcomer, having colonised the hole from nearby springs – and then diverged from its ancestors – within the past few hundred years. It has also been exchanging genes with related species of pupfish in nearby springs, despite the hot, dry desert separating them.
This may have happened during floods, or fish or their eggs may have been carried between springs by birds or humans, says Christopher Martin at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, whose team analysed DNA from pupfish species in the area.
This new genetic picture may change the way conservationists manage Death Valley’s endangered pupfish species.
Devil’s Hole is a rock fissure just 22 metres long and 3.5 metres wide leading to a vast flooded cavern whose bottom hasn’t yet been found. Within its warm, dark, oxygen-poor waters live the C. diabolis pupfish, whose numbers fluctuate from a few dozen to a few hundred, making them one of the most endangered vertebrates on the planet.
Ridiculous habitat
“Devil’s Hole is one of the most ridiculous fish habitats I’ve seen,” says Martin. “The water temperature would kill most fish within hours.”
The fish’s continued existence puzzled him, because genetic theory predicts that such tiny populations ought to go extinct within a few hundred years because of inbreeding or bad luck.
To understand the fish’s history, he and his colleagues sequenced DNA samples taken from C. diabolis that had died from natural causes, and compared the samples with archived DNA samples from other pupfish species that live in Death Valley.
Using mutation rates estimated from pupfish species elsewhere, the team calculated how long the Death Valley pupfish must have been isolated from one another.
The team found that all the pupfish of Death Valley descended from a common ancestor about 10,000 years ago, which fits with the postglacial drying of the valley.
But the Devil’s Hole pupfish are much younger, with an estimated origin of just 255 years ago – long after the last time the valley was fully flooded. Yet in that short time, the population has diverged enough to be considered a separate species.
Process preservation
One earlier study, based on a few DNA sequences, had also suggested a very recent origin of Devil’s Hole pupfish, but Martin’s is the first to confirm this with extensive genetic samples. Moreover, a little bit of genetic interchange roughly once a century has taken place among Death Valley’s pupfish ever since the glaciers left.
So Devil’s Hole may have been home to other pupfish species in the past, with tiny populations arriving and going extinct before the process repeats.
If so, conservationists’ primary aim should be to preserve this process, rather than the species that is there now, says Andrew Martin, a conservation biologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The study suggests that protecting the connectivity of this region will be essential for this cycle of rebirth to continue.
I saw an article on the pupfish, posted it a while back. Quick search and I found it again...
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...rlds-rarest-fish-may-mean-letting-it-die-out/
The Devil’s Hole pupfish – claimed to be the rarest fish known – isn’t what we thought.
This pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis, lives in a single pool in the middle of Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth. We had assumed it had been clinging to isolated existence at that site since the glaciers receded and the valley dried up 10,000 years ago. But its genes tell a different story.
The species is actually a newcomer, having colonised the hole from nearby springs – and then diverged from its ancestors – within the past few hundred years. It has also been exchanging genes with related species of pupfish in nearby springs, despite the hot, dry desert separating them.
This may have happened during floods, or fish or their eggs may have been carried between springs by birds or humans, says Christopher Martin at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, whose team analysed DNA from pupfish species in the area.
This new genetic picture may change the way conservationists manage Death Valley’s endangered pupfish species.
Devil’s Hole is a rock fissure just 22 metres long and 3.5 metres wide leading to a vast flooded cavern whose bottom hasn’t yet been found. Within its warm, dark, oxygen-poor waters live the C. diabolis pupfish, whose numbers fluctuate from a few dozen to a few hundred, making them one of the most endangered vertebrates on the planet.
Ridiculous habitat
“Devil’s Hole is one of the most ridiculous fish habitats I’ve seen,” says Martin. “The water temperature would kill most fish within hours.”
The fish’s continued existence puzzled him, because genetic theory predicts that such tiny populations ought to go extinct within a few hundred years because of inbreeding or bad luck.
To understand the fish’s history, he and his colleagues sequenced DNA samples taken from C. diabolis that had died from natural causes, and compared the samples with archived DNA samples from other pupfish species that live in Death Valley.
Using mutation rates estimated from pupfish species elsewhere, the team calculated how long the Death Valley pupfish must have been isolated from one another.
The team found that all the pupfish of Death Valley descended from a common ancestor about 10,000 years ago, which fits with the postglacial drying of the valley.
But the Devil’s Hole pupfish are much younger, with an estimated origin of just 255 years ago – long after the last time the valley was fully flooded. Yet in that short time, the population has diverged enough to be considered a separate species.
Process preservation
One earlier study, based on a few DNA sequences, had also suggested a very recent origin of Devil’s Hole pupfish, but Martin’s is the first to confirm this with extensive genetic samples. Moreover, a little bit of genetic interchange roughly once a century has taken place among Death Valley’s pupfish ever since the glaciers left.
So Devil’s Hole may have been home to other pupfish species in the past, with tiny populations arriving and going extinct before the process repeats.
If so, conservationists’ primary aim should be to preserve this process, rather than the species that is there now, says Andrew Martin, a conservation biologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The study suggests that protecting the connectivity of this region will be essential for this cycle of rebirth to continue.
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Another article on the Devil's Hole pupfish. Anyone here ever hiked in?
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/on-the-trail-in-the-desert-a-fish-survives/
Devils Hole SOUNDS like a scary place. But it's really a sanctuary, as Conor Knighton shows us:
Death Valley is the largest National Park in the lower 48 United States. It protects more than 3.3 million acres along the California-Nevada border.
CBS News
But look closely at a map, and you'll notice there are 40 ADDITIONAL acres -- 60 miles from everything else.
Far down a lonely gravel road, you'll come upon this "extra" piece of the park. They call it Devils Hole.
A trip to Devils Hole feels like you've discovered a supervillain's lair. It's in the middle of NOWHERE, surrounded by an imposing barbed wire fence.
There are security cameras and wind speed monitors -- all for a hole in the ground. If something seems a little fishy, well, that's because it is.
The Devil Hole Pupfish is one of the rarest fish in the world -- and this hole in the desert is the only place you can find it.
"The Devils Hole Pupfish became one of the first listed species to the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1967, which became the Endangered Species Act," said Kevin Wilson -- an aquatic ecologist, in the driest place in North America.
And this hole? "It's actually considered the smallest habitat known for a vertebrate species in the world. So it's about ten feet in width, and about 60 feet in length.
A pupfish.
CBS News
But thousands of years ago, this region was covered in water, and that's likely how the pupfish arrived at Devils Hole.
"We're STILL trying to figure it out," Wilson said. "It still has us asking questions and thinking of, you know, why and how? So it's a special place, and it gets me up in the morning and coming to work!"
This morning is especially exciting: It's "fish counting day." Twice a year, a group of divers spends a weekend heading into the hole to count.
The fish are in constant danger of extinction. "We actually reached an ultimate, all-time low of 35 observable fish in the spring of 2013," said Wilson.
While most of the fish can be counted from the surface, for the cave divers, it's a risky endeavor.
In the 1960s, two teenagers died while exploring Devils Hole. Their bodies were never recovered -- nobody actually knows how DEEP this hole goes.
"We know that divers have been down to 436 feet; they did not see a bottom," said Wilson.
Devils Hole is an aquifer. The 93-degree water here runs underneath this entire region, which pits farmers in search of water against environmentalists fighting for pupfish survival.
Near Death Valley National Park is a hole in the ground, hundreds of feet deep, home to one of the rarest fish in the world.
CBS News
Years ago, when a private company drilled a well and turned it on, Wilson said, the water in Devils Hole started to decline -- and so did the pupfish population. Conservationists raised the alarm.
It was a landmark case that went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1976: The farmers vs. the fish. When the fish won, and the pumping was regulated, it led to a lot of resentment.
"There are people that are really anti-pupfish, because it does regulate water rights and development in the area," Wilson said. "And people have threatened and said, 'Let's just throw a couple bottles of bleach in here.' So we do have to be careful."
Hence, the barbed wire and the cameras. Not long after Knighton's visit, surveillance video captured three locals breaking in to skinny dip. Beer and vomit were found in the water. Fortunately, only one pupfish was killed.
It could have been a lot worse, which is why there's a SECOND Devils Hole.
Luke Oliver is part of a team of researchers raising the pupfish in captivity, in a building just a mile from their natural habitat.
"In case they go extinct in the wild, we've got our backup right here," Oliver said.
The facility, designed to replicate the conditions of Devils Hole, complete with algae, cost $4.5 million -- which may seem like a lot of money to save a tiny little fish.
But for Kevin Wilson, the pupfish are just as important as the bald eagle.
"They're a beautiful fish," he said. "They're very inquisitive. Whenever we enter the water to go diving, there are fish that will come up to us and swim in front of our masks. We can learn from this species."
In a region so inhospitable to life they named it DEATH VALLEY, these tiny fish are still managing to survive.
For more info:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/on-the-trail-in-the-desert-a-fish-survives/
Devils Hole SOUNDS like a scary place. But it's really a sanctuary, as Conor Knighton shows us:
Death Valley is the largest National Park in the lower 48 United States. It protects more than 3.3 million acres along the California-Nevada border.
CBS News
But look closely at a map, and you'll notice there are 40 ADDITIONAL acres -- 60 miles from everything else.
Far down a lonely gravel road, you'll come upon this "extra" piece of the park. They call it Devils Hole.
A trip to Devils Hole feels like you've discovered a supervillain's lair. It's in the middle of NOWHERE, surrounded by an imposing barbed wire fence.
There are security cameras and wind speed monitors -- all for a hole in the ground. If something seems a little fishy, well, that's because it is.
The Devil Hole Pupfish is one of the rarest fish in the world -- and this hole in the desert is the only place you can find it.
"The Devils Hole Pupfish became one of the first listed species to the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1967, which became the Endangered Species Act," said Kevin Wilson -- an aquatic ecologist, in the driest place in North America.
And this hole? "It's actually considered the smallest habitat known for a vertebrate species in the world. So it's about ten feet in width, and about 60 feet in length.
A pupfish.
CBS News
But thousands of years ago, this region was covered in water, and that's likely how the pupfish arrived at Devils Hole.
"We're STILL trying to figure it out," Wilson said. "It still has us asking questions and thinking of, you know, why and how? So it's a special place, and it gets me up in the morning and coming to work!"
This morning is especially exciting: It's "fish counting day." Twice a year, a group of divers spends a weekend heading into the hole to count.
The fish are in constant danger of extinction. "We actually reached an ultimate, all-time low of 35 observable fish in the spring of 2013," said Wilson.
While most of the fish can be counted from the surface, for the cave divers, it's a risky endeavor.
In the 1960s, two teenagers died while exploring Devils Hole. Their bodies were never recovered -- nobody actually knows how DEEP this hole goes.
"We know that divers have been down to 436 feet; they did not see a bottom," said Wilson.
Devils Hole is an aquifer. The 93-degree water here runs underneath this entire region, which pits farmers in search of water against environmentalists fighting for pupfish survival.
Near Death Valley National Park is a hole in the ground, hundreds of feet deep, home to one of the rarest fish in the world.
CBS News
Years ago, when a private company drilled a well and turned it on, Wilson said, the water in Devils Hole started to decline -- and so did the pupfish population. Conservationists raised the alarm.
It was a landmark case that went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1976: The farmers vs. the fish. When the fish won, and the pumping was regulated, it led to a lot of resentment.
"There are people that are really anti-pupfish, because it does regulate water rights and development in the area," Wilson said. "And people have threatened and said, 'Let's just throw a couple bottles of bleach in here.' So we do have to be careful."
Hence, the barbed wire and the cameras. Not long after Knighton's visit, surveillance video captured three locals breaking in to skinny dip. Beer and vomit were found in the water. Fortunately, only one pupfish was killed.
It could have been a lot worse, which is why there's a SECOND Devils Hole.
Luke Oliver is part of a team of researchers raising the pupfish in captivity, in a building just a mile from their natural habitat.
"In case they go extinct in the wild, we've got our backup right here," Oliver said.
The facility, designed to replicate the conditions of Devils Hole, complete with algae, cost $4.5 million -- which may seem like a lot of money to save a tiny little fish.
But for Kevin Wilson, the pupfish are just as important as the bald eagle.
"They're a beautiful fish," he said. "They're very inquisitive. Whenever we enter the water to go diving, there are fish that will come up to us and swim in front of our masks. We can learn from this species."
In a region so inhospitable to life they named it DEATH VALLEY, these tiny fish are still managing to survive.
For more info:
- Death Valley National Park, California-Nevada (NPS)
- Devils Hole (NPS)
We did 5-6 years ago, its not really a hike though. More of a park and walk destination that's mildly interesting at best. The whole Ash Meadows Area is odd due to the amount of water that is present in the middle of nowhere near Death Valley. I don't recall how much is naturally occurring versus enhanced by man made infrastructure to keep it or get access to it. Here are a few pics from our trip: