Amidst seemingly endless reports of soon-endangered animals, a bit of good news: the Devil's Hole pupfish is being pulled back from the edge of extinction.
Remants of a species common in an ancient, wetter southwestern United States, the pupfish are now found in a single deep pool near Death Valley, where an isolated colony has survived for 10,000 years. Only 36 were found when scientists counted them in 2006, down from 500 a decade ago.
But thanks to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service feeding program, those numbers are up to 126 [.pdf] – still a fragile population, but headed in the right direction. And none of this would be possible without a landmark 1976 Supreme Court ruling that nearby ranch owners were not entitled to pump water from Devil's Hole if it destroyed the species.
Darn those activist judges!
Image: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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