Rare Animal’s Population Shrinks to 38 After California Earthquake – ryan

The Devils Hole pupfish is trying to rebound after a natural disaster.

According to SF Gatethe 2-inch-long fish is one of the rarest creatures on Earth and can only be found naturally in Devils Hole, a geothermal pool connected to an unmapped underwater lake in Nevada’s Death Valley National Park.

Biologists started monitoring the unique creatures, named for their puppy-like movements, in the 1970s. Over the decades, the small population of Devils Hole pupfish has fluctuated, hitting a record low of 35 fish in 2013 and a 25-year high of 191 fish in 2024.

Unfortunately, the growing 2024 population was greatly affected by a Dec. 5 earthquake centered 500 miles away in California’s Humboldt County. The tremors shook the pupfishes’ cave, causing the water inside to splash up and destroy larval fish and eggs underwater near the cavern’s rock walls. A second earthquake in February 2025 did more damage.

“We just knew that there weren’t very many left,” Death Valley’s spokesperson, Abby Wines, told SF Gate. “The scientists were extremely concerned. Each time they went to the cave, there were less and less fish swimming near the surface.”

To help support the pupfish’s dwindling numbers, biologists transferred 19 pupfish from the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility, where scientists have raised a backup colony of the species, to the animal’s natural home.

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According to a release from the National Park Service (NPS)biologists from NPS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Nevada Department of Wildlife counted the Devils Hole population after the transfer. They found a meager 38 fish, three fish away from the species’ record low, even with the 19 additional fish added to the group. Still, the biologists feel optimistic about the Devils Hole pupfish’s future.

“They’re doing a lot of spawning, which is exactly what we want to see,” Wines said of what the fish have been up to since the last count. “Making more fish.”

The release added that viable eggs and larval fish are at normal-to-high levels for the spring breeding season, and that habitat and food source conditions are improving at Devils Hole.

Biologists will do the next official count of the Devils Hole pupfish population in the fall of 2025.