The Modoc sucker, a small fish with fleshy lips that grab insects and worms and scrape algae from stream bottoms, joined the federal endangered species list in 1985. Biologists worried that its survival was threatened by stream bank erosion from cattle grazing and predatory non-native brown trout.
At the time, biologists believed the fish had only 12.9 miles of habitat in seven streams in Northern California’s Pit River Basin. To everyone’s surprise, Oregon State University discovered in 2001 that the fish also lived in Oregon waters, but had been misidentified as the Sacramento sucker.
Today, the fish inhabits nearly 43 miles in 12 streams in the Modoc National Forest of Northeastern California, the Fremont-Winema National Forest in Southern Oregon, and nearby state and private lands.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed earlier this year that the sucker be removed from the endangered species list because scientists had confirmed the fish “no longer meets the definition of an endangered or threatened species.”
When approved, the proposal will make the Modoc sucker one of the first fish to be delisted for reasons other than extinction.
Sources: Jarrell, Lacey. "Modoc Sucker Makes a Comeback." Herald and News 13 Feb. 2014 [Klamath Falls, Oregon] . Web. 17 Sept. 2014; "Endangered and Threatened Wildlife." Federal Register 79.30 (2014): 8656. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
