Within the Worldwide Work of Saving One Small Mexican Fish

This article was originally started appeared Black Atlas and is part of Climate Desk agreement.

At first glance, there is nothing surprising about the Mexican tequila splitfin fish. With only 2½ inches, the fish will not be beautiful or deadly. They are not very fast runners. They do not change colors or display strange traits. In many ways, they are forgotten. So when the fish, found in the only spring river near the Tequila volcano in the Jalisco region of Mexico, became extinct in the wild in 2003, there was no international complaint or even a local newspaper report that the fish are gone. adieu.

But scientists at the University of Michoacán’s Aquatic Biology Unit recognized that the tequila fish, as many people call it, played a key role in the river’s ecosystem — eating dengue mosquitoes and becoming sources of big fish and large birds. When it became apparent that fish were on the verge of extinction in the 1990’s, a team of international scientists agreed to save the fish. After 2003, the team tested an unprecedented measure in Mexico, reintroduce extinct species. Now, about two decades earlier, an abundance of tequila fish, about 2,000 in size, also known as the home of the Teuchitlán River, are swimming in crystal clear water in the shade of a tree-covered mountain.

Eager protected move The project began in 1998 when marine biologist Ivan Dibble arrived at the University of Michoacán with a treasure trove — two tequila fish from the Chester Zoo in England. No one knows why the tequila fish disappeared into the wild, but it seems to have been a combination of endangered species and invasive species, according to scientists at the zoo. While in captivity, scientists were able to provide control over the fish.

For 15 years, biologists at the University of Michoacán took care of tequila fish. Omar Domínguez, a construction worker, recalls: “At first all the people thought we were crazy. Although human-rehabilitation programs have been successful in some areas, this was the first time that scientists have done this in Mexico. When the project failed, Dominguez worried that “everyone would say, ‘Well, it is impossible to bring in fish.’”

The Dibble group of 10 fish grew. In 2012, the team transferred 40 tequila peas to an artificial pond in the university. He had to prove that the fish could survive in the natural world. In the pool, the fish have to compete for food, fight germs, and avoid predators such as turtles, birds, and snakes, just as they do in the wild. Four years later, a school for 80 people grew to about 10,000. That breakthrough allowed researchers to find the funds needed to make one final decision: reintroduce tequila fish into the wild.

Domínguez knew that the only way to achieve that would be to get the people of Teuchitlán to act. Without people cleaning and protecting the river, the fish could die too. Federico Hernández Valencia, professor of ecology at the University of Michoacán, was invited. He began working with local volunteers such as Martha Hernandez and Pilar Navarro, who started the relief work. River Guard in 2021. While Valencia and local volunteers were photographing tequila fish around town, local children chose his name, and eventually came to “Zoogy,” after the fish’s scientific name. Zoogoneticus tequila. (In the 20th century, many locals called these fish galito or “little rooster,” because of the bright orange line that adorns the tails of male fish. Some called it the fish burrito, or “little ass,” says Guardian’s Perla Espinoza, although he could not explain why.)