ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1986

CRITICAL HABITAT: One-half acre of aquatic habitat at Arizona’s Quitobaquito Spring with a 100-foot riparian buffer around the spring and 11 miles of stream channel in California along San Felipe Creek designated in 1986

RECOVERY PLAN: 1993

RANGE: Desert springs, cienegas, and small tributary streams of the lower Gila and Colorado River drainages in Arizona, California, and Mexico

THREATS: Competition and predation from nonnative fish, dam construction, livestock grazing, stream channelization, groundwater pumping, pollution, the lining and dredging of irrigation drains, and aerial pesticide spraying

POPULATION TREND: Desert pupfish populations occupying stable springs and headwater habitats persisted for millennia and experienced relatively little long-term change in numbers. Today five natural populations in a dozen locations continue to occur in the United States.