What's up with pupfish?
I've written a picture book story about the pupfish which I hope to see published someday. Pupfish are remarkable for living in extreme desert conditions. The pupfish I'm best acquainted with live in the Amargosa and Mojave deserts, specifically in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Devils Hole (a detached unit of Death Valley National Park). All three species/subspecies have lived there since the last ice age ended––about 10,000 years ago––around the same time as North America's last Columbian mammoths, giant ground sloths, and North American camels.
Around that same time the pupfish also lived alongside the First Peoples in the area whose descendants are the Nuwu (Southern Paiute) and Newe (Western Shoshone) peoples. Early white settlers, part of the Goldrush era, described the pupfish as nothing of consequence, after all, they were too small to eat. But what we've learned about these little survivors and their unique habitat since then could fill a children's book or two. In fact, that's what I've tried to do.
Being in Ash Meadows feels like both a step back in time with a first row view into Earth's past as well as a triumph of nature's perseverance against the toughest odds. My family and I visit this magical place whenever we get the chance.
Taking photo of my spouse and our oldest on a 2021 early spring-time visit to Kings Pool.
Snapshot of the gorgeous blue of Crystal Pool, right.
Click on photo for link to a Bristlecone Media production, on Vimeo, about Ash Meadows.
KINGS POOL and CRYSTAL POOL
DEVILS HOLE
Click on photo (below) for link to National Public Radio's "Weekly Dose of Wonder" article about Devils Hole pupfish.
The Devils Hole pupfish live in 93 degree Fahrenheit water (very warm) with very low soluble oxygen levels, something they've adapted to but that would kill other types of fresh water fish. They're an annual species, with population levels rising in spring and dropping through the winter months (when the pool receives little to no direct sunlight). Although they live in an isolated pool, the pupfish experience some exciting (and sometimes treacherous) events: flash floods occasionally roar down the steep limestone walls and earthquakes from as far away as Japan cause tsunami waves inside Devils Hole.
