As federal scientists faced turmoil, the Devils Hole pupfish reached a crisis point

NPR Science LISTEN & FOLLOW NPR App Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music iHeart Radio YouTube Music RSS link Science As federal scientists faced turmoil, the Devils Hole pupfish reached a crisis point May 7, 20266:00 AM ET Nell Greenfieldboyce A Devils Hole pupfish is pictured at the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility in Nevada. Scientists recently took captive-bred pupfish from this facility and introduced them into the species' natural habitat in Death Valley National Park. Olin Feuerbacher/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hide caption toggle caption Olin Feuerbacher/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The Devils Hole pupfish, a critically-endangered species and an icon of conservation, ekes out a precarious existence in Death Valley National Park. There, in the scorching desert, guarded by fences and video surveillance, this fish swims around in a sunken fishbowl made of rock that's been its only natural home for millennia. About a year ago, the population abruptly dropped to just 20 fish. Wildlife managers were so alarmed that, for the first time ever, they decided to release some pupfish that they'd been breeding in a huge tank for over a decade as a kind of insurance policy. They started by putting 19 captive-bred fish into Devils Hole, and later added about 50 more. Sponsor Message Weekly Dose of Wonder Against all odds, the rare Devils Hole pupfish keeps on swimming This spring, biologists saw 77 fish swimming around in the hole. "We're breathing a lot easier at 77 than 20," says Olin Feuerbacher, a biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service who manages the backup fish population in captivity.  But the move to augment the population in the wild happened so quickly — in part because of uncertainty about massive federal layoffs and a looming government shutdown — that the lab didn't take genetic samples from the first batch of captive-raised pupfish released into Devils Hole. For millennia, the rare Devils Hole pupfish has survived in a single deep pool of...