Originally this story Appears on Atlas Obscura and be part of Climate table cooperation.
At first glance, there’s nothing remarkable about Mexican tequila. At only 2 ½ inches long, the fish is not brightly colored or poisonous. They are not particularly fast. They do not change color or exhibit other strange behaviors. In many ways, they are forgettable. So when this fish, endemic to a single river with spring water near the Tequila volcano in the Mexican state of Jalisco, went extinct in the wild in 2003, there was no outcry. international or even an article in a local newspaper to auction this fish. adieu.
But scientists at the University of Michoacán’s Underwater Biology Unit know that tequila fish, as it is commonly called, play an important role in the river’s fragile ecosystem – feeding on mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever. and is a food source for larger fish and birds. When it became clear that the fish was dying in the 1990s, an international team of scientists joined forces to save the fish. After it goes extinct in 2003, the team will try to do something that has never been done before in Mexico – return an extinct species to its native habitat. Now, almost two decades on, a thriving tequila population of some 2,000, once again calling the Teuchitlán River home, swims in crystalline waters in the shadow of tree-covered hillsides.
Ambitious person change the conservation location The project began in 1998 when British fisherman Ivan Dibble arrived at the University of Michoacán with some very precious goods – five pairs of tequila fish from the UK’s Chester Zoo. No one knows exactly why tequila fish went extinct in the wild, but it could be a combination of pollution and invasive species moving in, according to scientists at the zoo. In captivity, scientists can provide a controlled environment for fish.
For 15 years, biologists at the University of Michoacán have cared for the tequila. Biologist Omar Domínguez, who worked on the project, said: “At first, all these people said we were crazy. Although reproducibility programs have been successfully implemented elsewhere, this is the first time that scientists have carried out such a project in Mexico. If the project fails, Dominguez worries, “everyone will say, OK, can’t reintroduce fish.”
Dibble’s 10 fishes grow up. In 2012, the team transferred 40 pairs of tequila fish to an artificial pond at the university. They need to demonstrate that the fish can survive in a semi-natural environment. In ponds, fish must compete for food, compete with parasites, and avoid predators such as turtles, birds, and snakes, just as they would in the wild. After four years, the 80-person school has grown to an estimated 10,000. That success allowed the researchers to raise the funds needed to take the final step: returning the tequila to the wild.
Domínguez knew that the only way to do it successfully was to engage the local community in the town of Teuchitlán. Without people working to clean up and protect the river, fish could die again. Federico Hernández Valencia, professor of environmental education at the University of Michoacán, was called in. He quickly worked with local volunteers like Martha Hernandez and Pilar Navarro, who founded the community initiative. River Guardian in 2021. When Valencia and local volunteers painted murals of tequila fish around town, local children chose a nickname for it, eventually naming it “Zoogy”, by the scientific name of the fish, Zoogoneticus tequila. (In the 20th century, many locals called fish gallito or “little rooster”, as the bright orange stripe decorates the tail of the male fish. Some people call fish burrito, or “little donkey,” says Perla Espinoza of The Guardian, though she doesn’t know how to explain why.)
